The year 2021 has been a year of remote learning and virtual interacting. With this, event organizers have become acquainted with virtual events and learned about their uniqueness.
Such Virtual events allow all action to take place online without the need of organizing an in-person event.
Going forward, we believe that now, when event organizers have truly learned the added advantages of virtual events, the hybrid event format – a combination of virtual and in-person will serve as a great alternative for event organizers.
So for the organizers this gives them a wonderful opportunity to make the best of both worlds and benefit from it.
What is a Hybrid Event?
A Hybrid Event is a combination of both online and offline event format. This allows an event organizer with the flexibility to invite attendees online or to the in-person event spot.
To call an event hybrid, it must partially have an in-person programme incorporated into it. And attendees (whether online or in-person) must be able to interact with the event stakeholders or amongst themselves.
What sets a Virtual Event apart from a Hybrid Event?
A Virtual Event takes place online only and the venue of the entire event is the virtual event platform itself. The speakers and the attendees here take part in the virtual event online or remotely. The content can also be live streamed or recorded.
On the other hand, hybrid events take place online as well as in-person. The attendees or speakers join online, while the event takes place at the actual event venue.
Why must you go ahead with a hybrid event?
Here are a few of the key advantages of having a hybrid event:
- One of the important factors of hybrid events is the possibility of holding large events with both online and offline features. You can reach a larger audience with far reaching geographical locations.
- Along with the scale of your event, you can monetize various aspects of the event and increase the revenue of your virtual event. These can be done in the form of registration tickets for your virtual event or monetizing virtual exhibition booths.
- Generally, virtual events are of lower costs and require less energy as compared to in-person events.
- Hybrid Events increases the participation levels of attendees with the ability to increase participation on the Virtual Event platform as well as the in-person event spot.
- Basically hybrid events allow you to reimagine events from two perspectives. An organizer can enhance the audience experience by organizing a hybrid form of event.
There are various ways to better your Hybrid Event:
- Virtual LIVE streaming of the entire event, with two or more speakers, online graphics
- Adding pre-recorded videos in the end or beginning of the event
- Setting up of online registration for your hybrid event
- Live streaming the Virtual Event platform feed on social media platform to bring in more audience
- Improve audience participation with gamification
- Have customized Virtual backgrounds for those connecting remotely.
The beauty of a Virtual Events is its flexibility in aligning itself to the likes of an event organizer and at the same time being extremely user-centric.
Your Virtual Venue:
Now, here you might be thinking, can your Virtual Event platform serve any other purpose other than being your virtual venue and our answer is yes. The right Virtual Event platform will help you recreate your event on your own terms with the right kind of backend support, marketing analytics and other advantages that can be of real use to an event organizer.
As we look forward to a post-pandemic world, all we can say is that hybrid events are the way forward to executing successful and audience centric events.
Read more | Hybrid Events: The Future of Corporate Events