HYBRID SOLUTIONS ARE THE FUTURE OF EVENTS

During my years in the events industry leading the marketing of Encore Event Technologies (formerly Staging Connections), I have witnessed many changes, ups and down and new approaches to delivering amazing event experiences. However, the effects of COVID-19 have had such a dramatic effect that none of us could have predicted, from the days of the first news reports, to the spread around the world and the massive effects on the global economy, not least the events industry.

Our current state

As we return to live events, things will be different. Some effects short term, others will be the new norm. Hybrid technologies are the future because of social distancing and restricted travel in the (hopefully) short term, but in the longer term too as we rely on these technologies to enhance our events and deliver a world-wide audience.

Hybrid events present us with an opportunity to do things differently and think outside of the normal event tool box. The fact that hybrid solutions open up your event to a wider, international audience can be a distinct advantage as it allows for a wider, global audience. With this comes more inclusivity and diversity at the event, which in turn can provide more interesting exchanges, a more diverse viewpoint and a higher ROI.

Like any digital solution, it’s important that we use them to enhance the event, not because they’re the new cool thing. That can distract from the event purpose. It’s really important that hybrid solutions are designed around to clients needs and desired outcome.

For example, if you want to grow your global audience considering charging for access to the live feed or record to those unable to travel from overseas. If your keynote resides in a country currently preventing from entering the country, don’t postpone, keep the momentum going and host the event with a live video conference from the speaker, better yet for interest, ask them to attend from a location that’s relevant to their presentation.

However, hybrid events have many points of potential failure, so using tried and tested event management practices helps identify and plan to mitigate risk. These include:

• Get expert help – production experts ensure that your virtual event site views well and is on brand. They ensure visual presents can be seen and audio is clear. Switching from presenters in the live room, remote presenters, presentations slides and videos all require expert help so your event runs seamlessly
• Plan for those in the room as well as online – it’s easy to include those in the room with Q&A sessions and networking, or discussions in breakout rooms. Online attendees can be included in these activities, ask your event producer about technologies for live streamlining, online polling, chat and Q&A, online networking solutions and the many other technologies for remote attendees inclusion
• Adequate band width - ensure your venue, remote presenters and attendees have adequate internet - without it you’re guaranteed to hit problems

What hybrid events will look like

There’s no substitute for in-person events, but social distancing is here to stay, at least for the time being. This means sitting a specified distance apart, limited numbers at tables and the directional traffic of the room is dictated.

Another popular solution is to use multiple rooms – a presenter can be in the main room, with a select number of people, plus multiple break-out rooms will welcome guests to provide the in-person experience and ensure they can ask questions live via a conference camera, or other live feed. Plus remote speakers or delegates can join via live feed from another location, or even another country due to travel restrictions.

Doing it right

What is vital is that the hybrid event creates an experience for remote delegates or speakers that is as close as possible to the live event. Webinars and live feeds are great, but you don’t get the energy of the live event and it can be hard to replicate the effectiveness of in-room networking and activities such as Q&A. There are multiple ways this can be achieved and the in-room delegates can benefit too. Plus you get those vital ROI and engagement statistics to show your company’s or your client’s investment was worth it.

That’s where hybrid event solutions come in. But there are so many options and suppliers in the market, it can be difficult to know which ones to choose. A simple place to start is to investigate solutions that are focussed on ways to replicate the live event experience and engage as much as possible for remote attendees. Choose hybrid solutions which enable attendees to watch the presentation live, ask questions in real-time, respond to question from the presenter, read additional topic materials and participate in networking or focus groups.

Some inspiration

Don’t cancel or post-pone because key speakers can’t be there in person. A unique solution Encore recently delivered was to have the speaker appear as a hologram! That really did deliver a memorable event experience!

Another memorable presentation was on a giant L shaped screen from backdrop to flat across the stage creating a 3D perspective for presenters to appear as if in the sea, on location anywhere their presentation takes guests.

The importance of events

Prior to the COVID-19 outbreak the business events industry was growing at around 6% annually and directly generated more than $35 billion in economic activity and employed over 229,000 people across a range of sectors and trades in the last full financial year. So it’s vital that we keep the vibrant events industry moving forward in new and creative ways.

We have the opportunity now to make the events industry bigger, better and more innovative than ever. A crisis such as COVID-19 can be an opportunity to look at how we can enhance events to make them even better and kick-start the return of the events industry.