THE GUIDE OF HOW TO PLAN A VIRTUAL & HYBRID EVENT in 2021
Here at The Event Book we love helping our clients plan the perfect event and during this time we are seeing increasing demand for a new way in which to communicate important company messages. Here we look at breaking down the best way to host your next Hybrid event and how the Event Book can help you delivering the event you your audience and ensure maximum potential.
What is a Hybrid Event?
A hybrid event is any event — conference, training seminar, trade shows or exhibitions, etc. — that combines live and in-person elements with digital, online components.
For example, a business conference that hosts an in-person gathering in Central London, and live-streams its keynotes and sessions to a worldwide virtual audience would be considered a hybrid event.
The goodness is that there are lots of ways as a Event Organiser you can host a hybrid event.
Planning a Virtual/Hybrid Event
They are also easier to host than you might think… with a little help from the Event Book Event Planners. Despite what you might believe, they don’t require a ton of high-end technology, like virtual reality, augmented reality, holograms or anything of the sort.
You can make a quality hybrid event with accessible technology that doesn’t require years of experience and expertise.
As you can see, hybrid events can be incredibly valuable when used correctly to engagement your team or clients to communicate your companies message.
In this blog post we’ll explain what hybrid events are, plus the benefits for you and your organization:
Why Hybrid Events Are Valuable
Hybrid events have grown in popularity over the past few months or so because they allow event planners to reach a wider audience, improve event ROI, and give companies access to valuable data points they otherwise wouldn’t hLet’s take a closer look at each of these reasons:
- Better Reach: Not everyone in your target market will be able to attend your events due to scheduling conflicts and/or budgetary restrictions. By making your event available online, you’ll remove these barriers and reach more people with your content.
- Improved ROI: Just because someone can’t afford to attend your in-person gathering doesn’t mean they expect to pay $0 for the content you’ve prepared. You can sell virtual access to your conferences for a discounted price, boosting event ROI along the way. You can also use keynote and session recordings as promotional pieces in the future, which has the potential to significantly lower your marketing costs.
- Valuable Data: Lastly, it’s much easier to track event engagement through virtual conferences because every move an attendee makes is automatically archived. This information can then be used to improve event details in the future.
Check out our Director Ria Thomas talking about how where to start with Virtual Events
As you can see, hybrid events can be incredibly valuable when used correctly to engagement your team or clients to communicate your companies message.
- A hybrid event is not…
- Streaming your sessions from your phone
- A sharable video on demand after the event
- Putting your live audience before your online audience
What tools do I need to host a hybrid event?
Depending on your event, A physical venue, we can help you secure the perfect venue here at The Event Book. You will also need a platform to host the event on, such as Zoom, or Mirosoft Teams, Trello, Blue Jeans are just a few available on the market.
It also useful to look out for additional tools, each one covers an essential piece of your event, and will make your virtual event a success.
Virtual event platform
Your new virtual venue – where attendees will engage with your content, your sponsors, and each other.
Networking & matchmaking tool
Create virtual serendipity and ensure valuable 1:1 connections.
Live Stream Tools
Your content (and how you present it) is your event – make sure you understand which tool is best.
Participant engagement tools
Add the element of fun and activity to keep attendees interested and engaged.
Virtual meetings are here to stay. We need to work out how we adapt and evolve the medium and technology to make them more human. Here are four ways to help
Drop the ‘Virtual.’
A connection is a connection, don’t mention the delivery mechanism. Move beyond the medium and focus instead on what you need to achieve your goals. Technology and channel are enablers not the solution.
Validate and ensure everybody thinks the same
Validate, validate and then validate again, making sure everybody is focused the same way. Otherwise you’re making it harder to understand whether everybody is thinking in the same way and working to the same objective.
Facilitate and demonstrate rather than tell
As Seth Godin says ‘we remember what you did, long after we forget what you said.’ Facilitation and demonstration enable you to build more meaningful relationships creating Authenticity, Relevance and Trust.
Let us help you plan your next Virtual Event
Speak to the experts….
We have teamed up with Curate 42 who are the experts in designing and consulting on how to bring your hybrid event to life. Curate42 partners with you to engage, influence and develop value in your campaigns and events, for both your organisation and customers.
