Event organizers are all more than ready to get back into the game of planning live and in-person events. But with the continued threat of COVID-19 and recommendations for large face-to-face gatherings, going back to live still presents a challenge.

What is a Hybrid event?

Wikipedia describes a hybrid event as a meeting, event, conference, or trade show that combines an in-person component with an online or digital experience. With a hybrid event, the scope of the digital component can vary widely and encompass everything from Twitter chats or flipped classrooms to live stream sessions. There is no set rule for what a hybrid format should be in 2020, so you get creative with what makes the most sense for your event, audience, and goals.

1. How is a hybrid event different from a virtual event?

   Unlike a virtual event, which takes place exclusively online with online attendees, a hybrid event also has in-person attendees.

2. What are some advantages of hybrid events? 

   A hybrid event is the next step for event organizers who want to jump back into live events but may face restrictions or participants who are hesitant to gather in groups. Hybrid events come with unique advantages, unlimited scalability (small in-person audience & large virtual), cost-effectiveness (smaller venue), increased reach and ROI, valuable data collection and audience insights, and a powerful unified message that can reach people anywhere.

3. What are the challenges of managing a hybrid event?

   The challenges of virtual and live audiences are that they have different needs. To plan a unified event experience, you will need to account for the needs of both audiences. Some things to consider: You will need to create content for the live experience that keeps your virtual audience as engaged as your in-person audience. Do you need a moderator to make discussions with the online and virtual audience easier? You may need to supply additional health and safety resources to enable your live attendees to meet face-to-face.

4. How many attendees do I want to have at your event?

   When you research venues, plan for fewer participants in a live event space to account for social distancing and health regulations. The on-line participants can be any amount, virtual is unlimited.

5. Who is my audience?

   You never want to make assumptions; however, the age of your audience or their profession may affect your in-person turn-out. If most of your audience is over 50, they may be less willing to risk gathering face-to-face where a younger audience may be more open to it. An audience made up of healthcare professionals may also tend to be more conservative about meeting face-to-face than an audience of software developers.

6. Will a hybrid event require more internal planning resources?

   Making your event available in person and virtually may require additional planning resources. Our advice is to carefully pick a company to partner with and select one who will not only listen to your goals but understands all aspects of the AV needed for live and virtual events to help you get clean audio and clean video for live streaming.

7. How will my room set-up change for social distancing?

   

   Work closely with your venue to create room set-ups that account for social distancing. As an example, if your room set-up for an event is normally theatre-style or round-tables, you may need to space your theatre seating further apart or have fewer attendees at round tables.

8. Will my marketing strategies be different for a hybrid event than a live event?

   To market a hybrid event, it utilizes the same channels you use to market live events such as social media, content marketing, email marketing, paid advertising…What you need to plan differently is the timing of your marketing efforts. At MAC Production Group, we will help you transition to virtual events. Our clients have seen registration numbers increase dramatically the week before their event. To maximize your online audience, you will want to increase marketing your efforts the week before your event takes place.

9. Do a hybrid live event and digital sessions need to take place at the same time?

   Most commonly people imagine a hybrid event having live in-person sessions being simultaneously live-streamed to a virtual audience. This is not the only option for event organizers, they can take advantage of pre-recorded content and semi-live sessions. The advantage of pre-recorded content is that presenters can be recorded, and their sessions are made available to online audiences at any time. An example of a semi-live Hybrid session is when a virtual audience can watch a pre-recorded session and then the presenter “goes live” to answer questions via audio or video. With a hybrid event using semi-live sessions for the virtual component, the timing and possibilities with online sessions and breakouts are much more flexible.

10. How should I adapt my content for online participation?

    Live streaming audiences simply do not have the same attention span. Taking that into consideration, we encourage you to provide more breaks for your virtual attendees, provide them with shorter content, or have a good mix between a live presenter and on-line content (graphs, charts, and prerecorded material). If you plan to stream your live-in person sessions, you will need to shorten your sessions to accommodate both audiences.

11. How do I keep my virtual audience as engaged as my face-to-face attendees?

    Engagement is more than just having an audience Q&A session. To have the feel online attendees feel included and want to interact with each other, the presenters, and networking. One way to achieve this by having a game both audiences can play. It is also a nice break in the middle of a session. Another idea is hosting your virtual event on a gaming platform. A gaming platform would fun, engaging, and different. The secret to hybrid events is to keep your entire audience engaged by hosting shorter sessions and provide even more networking opportunities for your virtual audience.