How to Host a Hybrid Event

Key Takeaways 

•  While planning for a hybrid event, you must consider eventualities like power and sound, as     well as providing audiences with value. 
• Creaty an strategy by identifying the type of event you want to makea and its goals.
• Avoid common pitfalls like unprepared presenters and a lack of joint activities.

The COVID-19 pandemic can be credited for the widespread popularization of virtual events (fully online events). However, post-pandemic, in-person events are now enhanced by the hybrid offering. The essence of hybrid events is that a portion of participants/attendees are usually on-site while others are online. This gives the event a wider reach that transcends geographical boundaries and accommodates varying attendees’ preferences.

Live Media has been a pioneer in the industry, offering hybrid events long before the pandemic had settled, making the company a true expert in this area.

Recent research suggests that 72%1 of event planners believe hybrid events are the future. Virtual events are expected to remain attractive considering in-person experiences have become more expensive. If you are planning to host a hybrid event, it is perfect timing! However, they come with unique technical issues.

Challenges of Hybrid Events

As a hybrid event host, you must think of how you will engage both sets of audiences, create value for sponsors/exhibitors (if any), and plan for eventualities like power, sound, and internet connectivity challenges. For events transcending borders, you must think about different time zones and other factors like language barriers.

It takes prowess to host a seamless hybrid event that is engaging, free of technical glitches and meets the core goals. Let’s discuss what you should focus on from the planning to execution.

Step-by-Step Guide: How to Host a Hybrid Event

Step 1: Craft a Hybrid Event Strategy

First things first: take a moment to craft a strategy. This will answer critical questions and uncover everything you need to create a successful event. Here are some important considerations to make when crafting a hybrid event strategy:

1. Does a Hybrid Event Make Sense?

Begin by deciding whether a hybrid event makes sense or not. Critically assess the pros and cons of an onsite vs. virtual event. A simple way to do this is to think of the kind of event you want, the target audience, and if it is perfectly suited for a hybrid event experience. For instance, conferences, town halls, and trade shows are perfect as hybrid events. If you have many attendees who would normally be on site but can’t attend in person, a hybrid event is a perfect solution.

Other scenarios that warrant hybrid experiences include restricting physical venues that can’t accommodate larger audiences and attendees organizations with limited travel budgets. Also, if information can be shared perfectly via video, a hybrid event will make sense. A quick audience pre-event survey can help you decide on onsite and online audience preferences.

2. Type of Hybrid Event

Your hybrid event strategy should also consider the exact types of event. Generally, a hybrid event can either be internal, external, or a mix of both.

Internal hybrid events are hosted for internal stakeholders i.e., a company hosting a hybrid event for employees, or leadership team who can’t all be under the same roof. The physical event could be at the company’s headquarters and live-streamed to the rest of the company. Common internal hybrid events include large team meetings and sales kick-offs.

External hybrid events are hosted for external stakeholders i.e., customers, suppliers, etc. Common external hybrid events include annual public meetings, trade shows and product demos.

Knowing the exact type of hybrid event is critical in selecting a suitable venue, crafting goals, etc.

3. Identify Event Goals

A hybrid event strategy must highlight exactly what you plan to achieve. Goals can be anything from creating engaging content to marketing something, prospecting, boosting sponsorship opportunities/value, etc.

You must strive to create engaging content that keeps attendees’ attention throughout an event. Your strategy should include preparing speakers and their presentations, a plan for managing content, and an overall speaker/event agenda.

If the goal is marketing, you should plan for a branded event with program information, a registration process, and email marketing. Remember to incorporate appointment scheduling for attendees to reserve an ideal time for networking opportunities. Appointment scheduling tools can help attendees see each other’s calendars and availability.

When one of the goals is enhancing content engagement levels, it helps to record sessions and send them to the invite list. This ensures attendees who couldn’t make it or missed parts of the event to catch up on their own time.

If you want to increase sponsorship value, you need to include opportunities for lead generation and brand awareness. A good hybrid strategy that factors sponsors ensures they get value and are open to sponsoring more events.

If you need more information about crafting successful hybrid event strategies, you can talk to hybrid event experts.

Step 2: Understand Common Pitfalls of Hybrid Events

Armed with your event strategy, you can proceed and execute. People tend to make the same mistakes when planning these events, so allow us to give you a hand and try to avoid them.

1. Hybrid Events Should Offer Two Experiences

For effective audience engagement, treat your event as one offering with two experiences. Achieving a balance requires creating event content for both types of audiences. It avoids common pitfalls like glitchy video streaming, unprepared presenters, and a lack of joint activities and Q&A sessions.

2. Time Zones and Language Barriers

Virtual events can also be ruined by overlooking time zones and language barriers. This applies mostly to events with participants from different regions. An event time should be structured in such a way that it is as convenient as possible for all attendees. Alternatively, you can plan for multiple different events for different groups in the same region. For international audiences, there should also be translations and subtitles, to cater to language barriers.

3. Technological Challenges

This is arguably the most common and detrimental pitfall. Technical challenges are highly likely, especially when using an inexperienced hybrid event crew. You should know the exact technology you will use and have the required support.

You need multiple test runs before your event to guarantee everything is working perfectly. Ensure there is reliable power, internet, and software, as well as backups. Attendees should also be conversant with the technology in use.

Step 3: Master the Key Elements of Successful Hybrid Events

After you understand the pitfalls and plan in advance, you should remind yourself of what makes a successful hybrid event before you host one.

1. Engaging Curated Content

Generally, you should focus on offering great content, engaging attendees, and offering sponsors value. It also helps to have metrics in place to measure the success of your event.

For content, plan to have dedicated personnel for remote attendees. Having someone speaking to virtual audiences directly and updating them throughout an event guarantees audience engagement.

There should also be separate content for remote attendees. For instance, remote attendees shouldn’t be watching their on-site counterparts during interactive networking sessions. Instead, there should be virtual experiences only. This requires custom event registration paths so attendees get curated content.

Considering virtual attendees tend to have a shorter attention span, it helps to have more breaks and offer on-demand content that they can consume later.

2. Live Polls, Q&A and Collaborative Sessions

One of the best ways of connecting onsite attendees with virtual audiences and creating immersive experiences is through live polls and Q&A sessions. To make an event successful, you need input from all audiences, so ask them to send questions and take part in polls.

Most importantly, virtual audiences should have their own breakout sessions virtually when in-person attendees are in such sessions.

You’ll need the right technology and strategies to execute i.e., gamification, tech that integrates perfectly with many mobile event apps or platforms, video/group chat capabilities, live chats/polling, etc.

3. Sponsorships

If your event has sponsors, remember to offer them onsite and online opportunities. There are several ways to give them great exposure to audiences. They include having sponsored sessions, banner ads, a dedicated sponsors page online (event website), a sponsor’s booth (virtually and onsite), and showcasing their commercials before granting audiences on-demand content.

4. Post-event Analytics

To gauge the performance of your hybrid event and improve on future endeavors, you need to do post-event surveys and measure different metrics collected during the occasion. It helps to use a data-driven platform to collect valuable data and generate reports from in-person and online components like watch-time.

Step 4: Firm up Details and Test Run

Now It’s time to firm up details about your event and test run.

Determine the date, time, theme, title, branding colors, etc. Also, alert potential attendees of the event and encourage participation. You can use email, a newsletter, social media, or a dedicated website.

Before the big day, do a dry run with your event team or event organizers and some audience to test out the online and on-site audience experience, video equipment, and software. Use this opportunity to test live speakers, microphones, and appropriate technology. A test run will uncover issues before the big day.

Ready to host your own hybrid event?

Although we tried to cover the most important elements you’ll need to host a successful hybrid event, there is obviously more to it than what we mentioned in this blog. Our tips should help you get started in the process, but keep in mind it may still be a challenge to implement the above information. Most importantly, hybrid events have many technical elements that require experienced event management platform experts.

If you want some help executing the more technical aspects, you can consider hiring a hybrid event company like Live Media, with renowned prowess in collaboration, event design, production, adaptability, and other important aspects of successful hybrid event hosting thanks to its virtual event platform.

Get a FREE quote from a proven event industry leader and know the actual cost of your event. Call 416-802-5750 or email [email protected] for guidance on your current and future events.

Sources

1. Global DMC Partners Releases Results of Q3 Meetings & Events Survey