The New Future And The Benefits Of Hybrid Events

Virtual events stayed the dominant form of the new normal in the event trend. The event industry learned a lot of lessons making use of the event technology tools and knowledge for the executions and works to digitalize the events. So, what will the event industry look like in the year 2021? To say that 2020 is the year of virtual events, this year is going to be a big year for hybrid events. As we started to see some parts of the world — the travel restrictions and the impact of the COVID-19 vaccination program are slowly starting to ease, in-person events are more likely to return, yet going deeper for the near future: Hybrid Events.

Hybrid Event and Its Pros

Hybrid events combine the virtual elements into the traditional live event structure to gather attendees in a face-to-face capacity while also connecting attendees in a digital platform. Planning a hybrid event doesn’t dismiss the concerns like venues, transportations, crowds, safety, and health issues. Interestingly, a hybrid event creates several types of live experiences, numerous ways of networking opportunities, and few levels of engagement, that we thought might only possibly happen during an in-person event. With these in mind, let’s see what we can have more from the hybrid events!

1. Larger Reach And Attendance

Hybrid events exist to expand the large reach and audience attendance around the world with any electronic devices at any time and space. The truth of physical events said that even most of the attendees prefer the recurring form of in-person events, they may not have the time or financial ability to travel to the event location. Offering hybrid solutions increase the opportunity to attract the global as well as to connect the targeted attendees to enjoy live experiences without the commitment of travel costs. When there is a chance to expose your event, you can boost the attendance for your future events. What a win-win situation with high event promotion and wider outreach!

2. Valuable Data

Hybrid events provide valuable insights to learn online and offline attendees. Just like an in-person event, hybrid events track the exact number of attendees for the whole event and also for each session. With the right virtual platform, the organizer can leverage their future event content by the collected information on session traffic, booth traffic, and attendees’ engagement. The most essential info is the demographic data, which helps the organizer to learn more about their event and do improvement in the future.

3. Increase Sponsor Opportunities

Whether they are in-person or virtual attendees, they are the hybrid event value to attract sponsorships from corporations and organizations. The increased reach appeals to the sponsors to effectively reach a larger pool of demographics. Besides, the hybrid event brings a higher sponsorship value with both physical and virtual presences. Your sponsors can interact with both attendees and share the company profile and product brochures in various existing event elements such as sponsored sessions, sponsored pages, and banner ads.

4. Increased Flexibility

This is the key reason why hybrid events have taken off — Flexibility! The event is not returning without the innovative investment on the virtual platform. While the technology is so accessible, build the cannot-missed virtual features into the virtual platform:

• Q&A sessions
• Live Polling
• Gamification
• Lucky Draw

With these integrations, the event organizer can interact with both attendees seamlessly.

What else? As everyone is working remotely, hybrid events give the option for the virtual attendees to fill up their busy schedule with your event, to recap the particular session even after the actual event date.

5. Reduced Cost In Budget

An in-person event can be costly with the speaker’s accommodation, catering, venue rent, and marketing collateral materials. As we know, the social distance has limited the number of attendees for in-person, the hybrid events decrease more on the travel costs across the sponsors and crews. Also, there is no set-up and dismantle, the virtual platform can replicate use for the future hybrid events after the first set up. Instead of cutting the onsite costs out from budgeting, utilize them for event marketing to build branding awareness and expand a huge attendees number. Bear in mind, they are the opportunity for the organizer to convert sales. Believe us, hybrid events are the best option nowadays to bring up the ideal results for the company goals.

6. Going Green

Since the COVID-19 pandemic, everyone realized the impact that reduced travel had on the environment, with empty city streets and downwards emissions. Physical events are still important, but going hybrid is a better way to accommodate attendees. There are still onsite attendees in the event, while also a lower carbon footprint and reduced need for catering. This way, both in-person and virtual attendees are still enjoying the event, and your company can build an environmentally conscious company profile.

7. Improved return on investment (ROI)

Hybrid events offer increased ROI with increased reach and scalability. As long as you have attendees, they are more likely to convert sales opportunities to attract greater views for sponsors and gain more sign-ups after the event. Taking advantage of the online technology, you can collect a huge amount of data, provide more insights into your event performance which then create a more positive ROI.

How to host a hybrid event?

If you are interested in hosting a hybrid event, ask yourself:

1. What is your event goal?
2. What do you expect from the goal?
3. How do you achieve the goal?
4. What is your requirement for your event?
5. How interactive do you want your event to be?
6. How engaging do you want your event to be?
7. How to ensure the health and safety issue of the event?
8. How to use a virtual platform?
9. How can you capture leads in the hybrid event?
10. What is the next step after lead capture?

Hybrid events aren’t a challenge for you. The right event partner and virtual platform will be the key success for your hybrid event to reach the most benefits for the event goals.

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