Can Hybrid Meetings and Events Affect a Company’s Sustainability Profile?

Simply put, all-virtual events drastically reduce the need for air travel, a major contributor to the carbon emissions problem. The shift also affects the environment positively in other ways, which have proven less simple to measure. As I discussed in this article, there are also different ways to use hybrid and virtual event technology, using less energy to achieve positive environmental results.

However, perhaps the most significant sustainability benefit of virtual events can be realized by re-thinking hybrid events themselves. This would involve not only large conferences and other events, but also everyday work and the meetings required to do business.

Hybrid Revisited

Originally, holding a hybrid event meant that both on-site and virtual participants were present at the same live event. Ideally, speakers, panelists, and especially audience members would have a comparable experience, no matter how they chose to attend. Making this an equitable arrangement has proved challenging to manage in practice, as I have written about previously. But the next evolution in hybrid, while equally difficult, offers an even greater benefit on the sustainability front.

Traditionally, on-site events were held at a single location, such as a conference center, hotel, or resort located in some exciting venue—or simply one near the company headquarters. Even though the “travel destination” part of the equation is diminished in a hybrid event, there is still a tendency to go with a single location for the on-site component. Increasingly, however, the “satellite” model is becoming more common. Each region can have its location for on-site participants, with virtual attendees participating from anywhere and each regional node in full communication with every other region. Major live-streamed events, like a keynote address, may come from one centralized site, but the regional centers and their on-site and virtual attendees could participate as required.

The environmental impact of this model extends beyond conferences and training events. Once extended to everyday work, on-site employees would still commute to their regional locations, but the overall travel burden would be considerably less, resulting in lower carbon emissions over time. It also goes without saying that the satellite model requires thoughtful planning and nimble event production personnel. But as businesses continue to decentralize, this, too, will become a normal aspect of business communication.

Words and Actions

Over the last few years, it’s becoming clear that measurement of carbon emissions is becoming more prevalent and more specific to those creating the problem. This means that companies will have to do more than announce their position, but will have to prove they’re doing something. The shift to well-managed, regionally-based hybrid events and meetings is one step that not only talks about carbon neutrality, but actually does something about it.

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Lee Deaner is President of Leading Edge Training Solutions (www.letstrainonline.com), a leading producer of hybrid and virtual events, informational meetings, and training programs since 2009. He is also the co-author of The Virtual Events Playbook, available on Amazon and directly from Amplify Publishing.