One of the best practices to expand your business is by going digital. In the post-pandemic era, being digital often means organizing webinars and establishing a strong social media presence. At one time, events and conferences were held to widen the scope of procuring leads. Even today, events are a great way to socialise and increase your brand reach. There are different types of events that can help your business grow. Virtual, hybrid and in-person are formats that every event marketer is passionate about. Post COVID-19, virtual and hybrid event experiences play an important role in the marketing strategy of a business.
Though it sounds entertaining, there are certain challenges that every event marketer faces while organizing hybrid events. In a hybrid event, the in-person and virtual events have to be joined together into a single event. The most common challenge is to unify both events according to a single topic of your choice. A few other obstacles while organizing hybrid events are harmonizing online and on-site audiences, catering to different time zones due to a global audience, selecting ticketing strategies for an online and on-site audience, deciding on appropriate and user-friendly technologies to smooth audience experiences, conducting activities for both types of audiences and deciding on the venue for the event. Whatever the problem, we are here to solve your dilemma. Within this article, you’ll receive insights to enhance hybrid event experiences and tips to nail your next hybrid event.
1. What is a Hybrid Event?
Most of us would know what an event is, but when it comes to hybrid events, many of us tend to skip through the basics.
In layman’s terms, a hybrid event basically means a physical gathering of people for an event along with an online audience for the same. A hybrid event can be organized for conferences, meetings, workshops, business gatherings, etc.
2. Elements of a Hybrid Event
As mass-scale inoculation drives are taking place globally, the markets are going to reopen soon to cater to the global economy. With this, organizations can start to plan hybrid events soon.
Depending upon the size of the business, different types of hybrid events can be organized. You must think of multiple things before diving into organizing a hybrid event.
Hybrid events serve the unique purpose of engaging virtual and in-person audiences. What is the right way to plan a hybrid event? Well, there is no single way to organize a perfect event. As the nature of these events require, there are different stages of planning.
Components of a hybrid event are as follow:
2.1 Marketing
Years of streamlining businesses has shaped what we recognize today as marketing. Marketing is one of the most important requirements of a hybrid event.
Only after extensive research of your customer base, can you identify the right target audience for your business. Targeting a wide range of audience members for hybrid events will help you in driving ample registrations.
2.2 Content
By now, we all have realized that content is king. For hybrid events, the content must be built around the idea of in-person and virtual attendees.
Producing and delivering content around the topic that you’ve chosen is extremely important.
2.3 Data and Insights
Tapping into your store of gathered and analyzed data in order to invite registrations for your webinar and to generate leads is a must. In hybrid events, the scope for growth and achieving a global audience is high as it provides the benefit of in-person and virtual gathering.
Sharing well-researched data and insights about your business and services with your audience will help in establishing a sense of goodwill and trust amongst your business, your employees and your audience.
2.4 Sponsors
In a hybrid event, the dual nature of the event gives you a lot of scope for leveraging sponsorship for increasing awareness and for lead-generation opportunities.