As some people return to the office and others continue working remotely, hybrid work is likely to become the leading model for teams across the world. So it only makes sense that hybrid events are also becoming more popular today than ever before. In fact, they have become the new normal in many parts of the world because of how easy they are to execute and how low-cost they can be. Despite common misconceptions, hybrid events don’t necessarily require tons of high-end technology like VR team building tools or professional recording equipment. They are actually pretty easy to host.
It’s safe to say that even when physical, in-person events return, hybrid events will continue to be popular. This is because hybrid events help to combine the best of both worlds: the physical and the virtual. If you’re wondering what benefits leveraging hybrid events can bring to your company — as well as how you can leverage them for maximum impact — you’ve come to the right place. We’re telling you everything you need to know about this combined physical and online team-building activity model that is gaining traction in businesses everywhere.
What Are Hybrid Events?
Before we dive into the benefits of hybrid events, it’s essential to understand what they exactly entail. Hybrid events are corporate virtual events like conferences and seminars that involve a live gathering of a group of attendees present physically and remote attendees present virtually. It essentially combines a physical aspect with the virtual component.
When hosting a hybrid event, you must make sure that you are offering multiple experiences to different types of attendees. This can often include using features like virtual reality (VR) solutions, augmented reality, and holograms.
Engagement is an important aspect of hybrid events because these events maximize audience engagement by fostering communication and ensuring everyone takes an active part in the event.
Benefits of Hybrid Events
You must now be wondering whether hybrid events are truly worth it. Let’s take a look at some of the significant benefits hosting hybrid events have had for businesses.
Greater Outreach: Since hybrid events offer both physical attendance and virtual attendance via online event platforms, they can significantly help widen audience reach. You can have people living in different countries, thousands of miles away, attending your corporate hybrid event.
Higher Engagement: Adding a virtual component to your corporate virtual event helps open up greater avenues and opportunities for engagement that would otherwise not have been possible in a strictly live or online event. Since you will have an online audience at all times, the best event apps will allow attendees (both in-person and virtual) to engage through comments, shares, and online polls. You could even include a Q/A session with the speaker being present live and the online audience asking the questions.
Less Physical Space Needed: Since you will have half of your audience attending virtually, you might not need a large physical space or venue to accommodate your physical guests. This can help save costs as well, which can be a significant factor if you are organizing a big event and have a lower budget.
Ideal For Smaller Budgets: If you cannot afford to host a large-scale corporate virtual event, you can easily host a hybrid event on a smaller budget.
Improved Return On Investment (ROI): Since fewer costs are involved, your opportunities for a higher ROI are enhanced. This is because of a wider audience reach and attendance.
Provides Important Insight: Since a good portion of your corporate event will be via online event platforms, you have more tools for analysis that can help measure your event success.
Provides Content for Marketing: In terms of pictures, videos, and polls, the content generated from a hybrid event can be enough to last you for months. You can keep updating your social media platforms with them and engaging with the audience.
5 Tips For Hosting Successful Hybrid Events
Organizing a successful hybrid event involves careful planning and execution. When planning a hybrid event, you should consider which speakers to include, what online team building activities to incorporate, and what the budget is. Once you’ve planned the event and are ready to host, here are some of the ways you can leverage hybrid events to host the most successful experience possible.
1. Invest In Technology
For a successful hybrid event, you need to invest in technology. Since some of the attendees will be present online, you can include high-quality videos, pictures, and even 3D animations to keep them engaged. Besides having high-quality internet, webcams, and microphones, you can also use features like augmented reality or virtual reality if your budget allows. These are great VR team-building techniques to help them stay engaged.
2. Update Your Social Media
While the corporate event is taking place, make sure that you are consistently updating your social media for the online attendees who might want to see a bit more. Posting before the event will also be a cost-effective way of exciting your team and attendees.
3. Find Sponsors
A hybrid event still requires a reasonable budget, despite the fact that it is considered relatively low-cost. Bringing in a sponsor can also be a good way to have excellent planning and implementation if the sponsor is experienced in hybrid event management.
4. Script Your Event
Since there are multiple components in action at a hybrid event, it can sometimes be hard to manage everything. This is where careful planning can help. Scripting your event in terms of every activity that will take place, what the speakers will be talking about, and the closing speeches can help streamline the entire event.
Bonus tip: Use a note-taking app like Hive Notes to outline the event and plan with others beforehand. You can even assign specific tasks or talking points to individual people so everyone knows who is responsible for which parts of the event. It’s a great way to collaborate and keep everyone on the same page.
5. Test Your Event
An integral part of hybrid event management is testing the event beforehand to make sure everything is working properly, including microphones, internet, and speakers. Doing so allows for a smoother flow of your hybrid event without any glitches or setbacks. And if you are incorporating VR, then testing it beforehand in the event can be extremely helpful.
Final Words
In this article, we’ve explained everything you need to know in order to leverage hybrid events from start to finish. Remember that planning and executing hybrid events can often be challenging, but having a team of experienced individuals can be helpful.
This guest post was written by Sarah Hill. Sarah is a content writer at Seven Events Ltd, a leading event company offering event management and venue finding services in the UK. She started her career in the events industry almost a decade ago as time progressed she became an avid event blogger sharing her insight on corporate event planning.
