Best Practices for Hybrid Event Management

The event industry has been in a state of transition over the last few years. While in-person events went through unprecedented challenges over the last several years, the worries about the industry’s demise appear to have been overblown as events are back and they’re stronger than ever.

However, today’s events look a little different from the events of the past. Even before the pandemic, event planners were starting to embrace a hybrid mindset, planning conferences, corporate retreats, conventions, and even trade shows that offer a choice of attending in person or virtually.

While hybrid corporate events may be the future of modern meetings and conferences, planning and hosting one poses some unique challenges. If you’re wondering how to host the best hybrid event, this guide covers it all. You’ll learn everything from what hybrid events are and the benefits they deliver to how to plan a hybrid conference that delivers on your goals along with some hybrid event ideas to make it successful.

What is a hybrid event?

A decade ago, planning a corporate event or trade show probably meant you were arranging an in-person experience that gathered your attendees together for face-to-face meetings, speakers, exhibits, and networking opportunities. The advent of new technology made virtual events more engaging and coupled with the COVID-19 pandemic and sped along the adoption of hybrid events.

Virtual events are here to stay and a new model has emerged that blends the best of both approaches: hybrid events, which are hosted in a physical location but extend your live event content to a broader virtual audience.

The benefits are numerous. Busy attendees who might not be able to carve out time in their schedule to travel to an in person event can still participate, and the cost savings can be dramatic. Hosting a portion of attendees online instead of in person cuts down on expenses from airfare to lodging and catering and can slash the overall price tag of an event.

It’s a versatile approach, but one that requires careful planning and execution. It’s no longer enough to just record and live stream panels and breakout room sessions in real-time. To be truly successful, you need to provide attendees with compelling reasons to be engaged before, during, and after your event.

While this sounds simple, in practice, catering to the needs of in-person and on-screen audiences can be difficult. An end-to-end hybrid event platform that supports your entire event management process can help you plan an experience that keeps audiences engaged and focused while combatting virtual meeting fatigue.

In addition, event planners need a virtual event platform loaded with functionality and creative digital tools for activities that create connection. Examples of hybrid event ideas that make your event more meaningful and encourage networking include:

• Live entertainment or a well-known keynote speaker.
• Event apps.
• Live chats and Q&As.
• On-demand content and
• Social media
• Virtual photo booths.
• Gamification elements, such as virtual scavenger hunts.
• Immersive event experiences, such as real-time and virtual yoga sessions or cooking classes.

What are the benefits of hybrid events?

Who says you can’t have the best of both worlds? Hybrid events combine the best elements of in-person and virtual events into one platform to create an experience that benefits both event attendees and event organizers:

• Increased reach and accessibility: Hybrid events break geographical barriers, letting participants from anywhere in the world easily attend your event without having to travel. This broadens your reach and makes your organization more accessible to a wider community.
• Lower costs: While hybrid events can require an initial outlay for technology, the savings on expenses like venue rental, transportation, accommodations, and catering typically makes them a more budget-friendly option than fully in-person gatherings.
• Data and analytics: Hybrid events can provide you with a treasure trove of data and analytics information. This data can help you track attendee engagement, interactions, preferences, and other key metrics to measure the return on investment of your meeting spend and help you make informed decisions about future events.
• Engagement and interactivity: Hybrid events provide innovative opportunities to increase engagement with all attendees: Virtual attendees can participate in online polls, quizzes, Q&A sessions, and discussions, while in-person attendees can network face-to-face and join in on hands-on experiences.
• Sustainability: If your company has made a commitment to sustainability, hybrid events can keep you in line with these goals by reducing travel and, by extension, the carbon footprint of your event.

A hybrid event checklist: 9 best practices for planning a successful event

While hybrid events offer many advantages, they’re not without challenges. The event format, logistics, technology, and design all need to be carefully planned and executed to create a seamless event. This checklist will help you get started:

1. Start with clear objectives: What do you want to achieve with your hybrid event? Having a well-defined goal in mind will guide your event strategy and help you measure the ultimate success of your event.
2. Integrate seamlessly: For a successful event, your in-person and virtual components need to seamlessly integrate with each other. A hybrid event management platform that makes it easy for in-person and virtual attendees to interact with one another is imperative for achieving this goal.
3. Choose your venue wisely: Hybrid events have very specific requirements. When selecting the space for your physical event, make sure it’s equipped with the technology you’ll need to power the virtual components, like reliable Wi-Fi, lots of easily accessible outlets, a back-up power source, ample storage, and a loading area to bring in audiovisual equipment and any exhibitor materials.
4. Be strategic with event ticketing: Do you want a primarily in-person event? Or do you want a smaller physical event, with the a large number of attendees joining virtually? You can steer people towards the online option by offering discounted pricing for virtual attendees on your event registration page.
5. Plan an accessible event: Making event content available in both real-time and on-demand lets virtual attendees who are in different time zones or have busy schedules easily catch up on sessions they missed. But you should also make sure you consider physical accessibility for both audiences. That means offering options like closed captioning, adjustable font sizes, and dark/high-contrast mode for virtual attendees and making sure your site is equipped with wheelchair accessibility and ramp access for in-person attendees.
6. Be well supported: What if the Wi-Fi goes down or your equipment malfunctions? Build in redundancies for all your event technology – and be sure to have a reliable onsite technical support team to quickly resolve any issues that may arise during the event.
7. Invest in quality: A poorly produced event will take away from your guest’s experience. Make an investment in audiovisual equipment and high-quality hybrid event management software so your virtual audience has a first-rate experience.
8. Find multiple ways to engage: Tap into effective tools that engage both online attendees and in-person audiences, like live polls, virtual quizzes, breakout sessions, and networking opportunities.
9. Start planning future events: Collect feedback from attendees post-event and leverage key metrics to find out what worked and what didn’t. Combined, this information can provide valuable insights to help with planning future events.

Take your hybrid event to the next level with the support of American Express Global Business Travel. Discover how we can assist you in achieving your objectives and creating an event that will captivate attendees.