Get Curious About Hybrid Events!

As a corporate event host I doing a lot of emceeing at a lot of different places but my favourite type of event is hybrid!

Events which combine both in-person and virtual experiences, will eventually be the norm and I think they are brilliant.

Why?

A hybrid event attracts both in-person attendees and virtual attendees, twice the opportunity to talk to customers!

It will really benefit your green credentials. By reducing the number of onsite attendees, there will be less travel, fewer meals thrown away etc etc i.e. your event’s carbon footprint lessens.

It’s so much more inclusive.People can connect in-person if they want, but it also gives those who can’t attend due to ill health concerns, travel or financial issues, the opportunity to engage virtually. By reducing the barrier to entry, it is giving even more people the opportunity to interact with your content and your brand.

an in-person event with any kind of digital element is hybrid

Sponsors will be happy too. They will get double the exposure because hosting your event in digital space AND an in-person space is only going to increase opportunities for brand awareness and leads.

But, it is still scary for a lot of clients and organisations. You can’t often imagine what you don’t know and may be worried about the cost and the practicalities.

The cost fear comes because clients can’t imagine it, or assume it must be all-singing all-dancing ones with live simultaneous shows using broadcast studios and hubs all over the world.

Hybrid means tons of golden content

But hybrid can be affordable. Remember an in-person event with any kind of digital element is still a kind of hybrid and can reap rewards.

This is especially the case if you invest in high production values to record your in-person event, i.e. broadcast quality cameras, sound, vision mixing, editing.

The possibilities for hybrid are endless

This way you can produce high quality recordings and streaming sessions for virtual attendees. This means tons of golden content that people can engage with it for days, weeks and months afterwards, ensuring they keep learning and thinking about your organisation long after the event has ended. Think of this like an entire ecosystem of marketing and content.

And the possibilities for hybrid are endless. The event platforms themselves are developing in impressive ways all the time. And then there’s the incredible immersive technologies of VR, AR, XR. (The picture above is of me hosting in an XR studio.) There's also facial recognition, Bluetooth, Live Translation, QR codes, Holograms, and digital photo booths, to mention just some of the incredible tech making waves in events.

So as an event host, my advice is get curious about hybrid: talk to early adopters going deep, or just dip your toe into recording the content. But whatever you do, make it hybrid!