Once upon a time there was a hybrid...

"Hybrid" in the event industry is defined in three ways that I know of.?

1.) the participants of an event take part either live on site or virtually via computer.

2.) Real events take place at the same time and in different locations and these are digitally connected - the so-called "hub and spoke" model.

And 3) virtual events take place before or after a real event.?

Although variant (3) is the first to correspond to the idea of hybrid, it is the least common. It corresponds to the hybrid idea because - as with a hybrid engine - it is a question of either / or. So either the engine runs on fuel or it runs on battery power. But never both at the same time.

This variant is about involving a participant community - e.g. the members of an association - more strongly (for the real event) via the (upstream and downstream) virtual events. Community building, relationship management, exchange of content and greater involvement of participants alongside and at the actual event. This can have many advantages. In this way, "concerned" (participants) can be turned into "involved" (participants). For example, to reduce the no-show rate of the real event, because the participants were better "involved, picked up and included" in advance and thus have a higher interest and motivation to participate in the real event.?

For example, working groups from among the participants could be formed in advance to prepare content for the real event via online events. Information can also be communicated to the participants in advance of the event (and also to the target groups who are to be motivated to participate) in order to convey a higher level of basic knowledge about the content of the real event to the participants.

The question of WHY remains unanswered.?

Why should you transform your real event with virtual events? This question is particularly relevant for a closed group of participants, e.g. members of an association. Because the association certainly offers its members other communication channels through which it provides information. So why go to all this extra trouble? It worked without it until now...

It is different if such a target group is to be recruited for an event. In this case, the online publication of content in the run-up to the event alone can be important and helpful to trigger a decision-making process in the target group: namely, whether they want to participate or not, because the content does not correspond to their wishes and ideas.

We use this "hybrid variant" in this way at our MICEboard trade events. By only admitting international suppliers to the MICEboard events and presenting their brands, products, services and benefits in detail online in advance, we automatically trigger a selection process within the target group "event planners".?

Event planners who only organize events in Germany will not be interested in international suppliers and their offers. Those who also plan events abroad will carefully consider, on the basis of the participating suppliers, whether it makes sense for them to participate - given the information and facts about the exhibitors spread out before them online - for their business.??

Ultimately, therefore, this approach is a very useful aid to decision-making for event planners. But also for the international suppliers at a MICEboard event, because they can rely on coming into conversation with really interested and prepared event planners at a MICEboard trade event. And anyone who knows sales events and trade fairs in the MICE industry knows that this is rarely the case.?

In addition, this form of content publication generates further added value: namely for event planners who cannot attend the trade event for scheduling reasons. They can still access (online) all relevant information about the international suppliers. They only miss out on the personal encounter and the personal conversation with the exhibitor at the MICEboard event.

For the international MICE suppliers, however, this variant has an even greater added value, because through these (German-language) publication(s) about their brands, products, services and offers, they significantly increase their online awareness in the German-speaking target markets, and these are undoubtedly the most important markets for international MICE suppliers within Europe.?

Exclusively online awareness is the entry point to every sales pitch, because who or what is not found online does not exist and has not taken place.?

Let's take a closer look at the "hub and spoke" model (variant 2). This is undoubtedly a sensible hybrid variant. On closer inspection, however, it is actually numerous real events that are networked with each other (via live stream). Thus, the keynote speaker from destination A can also be shown virtually on the screen in front of the audience in destination B, C, D and so on. That's great, but not new.?

That leaves variant 1, the variant that is so often commented on with "come to stay". But is this really the case?

Of 10 corporate events, 9 are certainly for a closed group of participants. The event was once chosen as the communication channel for this group of participants. Certainly for very good reasons and rightly so. If this closed group of participants is now offered the option of choosing, because each participant must decide on one variant - real or virtual participation. No matter how (and for what reasons) this decision is made, it always means that one variant will lose the participant. This is fundamentally not optimal and therefore one will very quickly come to the decision to commit (again) to one of the two variants: online or live. And that's the end of "come to stay".?

Now, it can be argued that with such a hybrid variant you will also reach more participants and have a wider reach. That's true, but if the goal is to reach many people in front of monitors, there are much better communication channels, such as online advertising, TV commercials, radio spots, YouTube, Instagram, streaming in the social media and networks, etc. An event as a tool for wider reach was never been the first choice, and it won't be, even if you "extend" the event online.?

Already, virtual events are showing massive signs of wear and tear compared to last year. Awkward registration, blocking time slots in the diary, annoying logging in and then staring at the monitor is just awkward and often the content is boring as well. And as soon as face-to-face meetings are allowed to take place again, it will become even more difficult to get people back in front of their computer monitors for such virtual events.

Therefore - and this is increasingly happening - virtual events will change and (further) develop into streaming formats. Just as we have been offering international MICE suppliers for over a year with MICEboard Stream TV their online events, such as webinars, not in a closed virtual event software, but where they generate reach and awareness and are open and easily accessible for participants: namely in the social networks. Where the relevant target groups are, where they communicate and where they can easily be reached with any internet-enabled device: Laptop, tablet, smartphone, smart TV or a cross-trainer with monitor and internet connection....

People don't want to block (free) time and log in, they want to watch content when, how and with a device they want.

In summary, the future in the MICE industry will certainly not be as self-evidently "hybrid" as is currently being (pre-)announced all too quickly and loudly. Anyone who takes the trouble to look into it a little more intensively will soon realize this and in the end it will become a fairy tale for one or the other, which - like every good fairy tale - begins with: Once upon a time there was a hybrid...

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