Hybrid Events Ignited

Meet our moderators as you find out what to expect from the next few hours of engaging content.

Hybrid is a term being bandied around the event industry. There’s a lack of clarity amongst many planners about what it means and the structure of the model. Many recognise they need to start framing this out and devising a plan. This involves deciding their business objectives and defining stakeholder needs. Part of this process is defining which format will best meet their needs, as we transition back to live events. Three of the most popular hybrid approaches under consideration are:

- the simultaneous physical and digital approach
- delayed hybrid approach with a live event running one week and a
virtual event with repurposed content running a week or more later
- using a combination of separate live and digital experiences to
develop 365 communities.

There are many other variations in approach. With no one size fits all,
what’s the right approach to take for your organisation. We’ll take you
through a toolkit of the key considerations.

Many event planners are developing and implementing strategies to support building digitised communities.  Using a hybrid format of live events and digital content 365, the Emerald case study will outline the journey to successfully implementing these types of community models.

Brian will take us through how for Emerald a key pillar of a successful approach is putting the customer centre stage and understanding their needs. He will reflect on the impact of the pandemic on the organisation’s event strategy.  As a result the organisation is planning in addition to in person events, to deliver increasing amounts of 365 digital content across the brands aswell as introducing year-round transactional marketplaces for certain brands.  He will take you through the organisation’s thinking about the buyer journey and delivering customer success, significant reorganisations of staffing, putting more focus on data science and utilising data-driven insights, bringing in engineering talent and developing skills around marketing automation, leveraging technology, and providing a clear content offering. The combination of these factors has helped them created long term value,
enabled them to monetise the model and achieve growth.

How do you stop virtual attendees feeling like second class citizens? Will some of the audience, have got so used to the convenience of virtual content they will never return to physical events? These questions are exercising the minds of some event planners. Whether the event is a simultaneous offering or the two elements are held at different times, the secret is to focus on developing compelling content for both audience types. The content will need to be proprietary, topical and forward looking to keep your audiences engaged. The panel will discuss how you address these points and reflect them in the content you deliver to keep both audiences engaged. Should you develop exclusive content for both, should you be embracing TV production and sporting event mindsets and comparing live formats versus pre-recording content approaches. The panel will debate some of the networking approaches that have seen more traction and why, these include topic-based roundtable sessions incorporating breakouts for smaller chat groups, Ask the Expert sessions, virtual meet ups sessions with speakers and AI powered speed networking.

Take a quick desk work out with our virtual movement guru, or find out more about Augmented Reality for events, or take a tour of the London venue to see how it’s laid out.

The increased investment required to deliver both the in-person and virtual formats is a big concern to many event planners. Some fear that with two formats running simultaneously they will be looking at double the costs. This session will take you through those additional elements required to consider how to assess the levels of investment to make on each one. The starting point needs to be your event objective and value proposition. Do you have the right skill set in your team to deliver the different formats? Thought also needs to be given to whether technology investment could support in helping to automate processes and so take pressure off the team.

This case study which will provide a real-life experience of running a hybrid event. Providing a first-hand account of the challenges encountered and how they were overcome. Offering the thought process behind the model offered, content offering, budgetary considerations, investment in technology, practical considerations for the physical event to make it COVID safe, resource required and the financial model used.

Thinking about the two customer journeys, tailoring different marketing messages and managing two sets of logistical arrangements. Was it possible to deliver an engaging event for both the in person and for the virtual audience? What were the audience engagement metrics and did the event offer ROI? The case study aims to address the many questions event planners are mulling over and understand the types of challenges they could face and how to address them.

We know COVID-19 has changed the way people work, how might it also change their views on attending events? We bring together a panel of leading event planners to air their expectations, hopes and challenges in designing their future event strategies. When do they feel it will be realistic to start running in person events again? What are they different ways they are considering incorporating hybrid approaches into their event strategies. How are they thinking through the different challenges in the delivery of these events including devising content and planning out the customer journey and marketing messages required for both groups. At the event helm of their respective businesses our event leaders can be sure of one thing – the times are challenging and they want to feel they’re able to devise strategies which have the inbuilt flexibility for these uncertain times.

The past year has for many been spent making tactical purchasing decisions on platform solutions at speed to enable them to pivot to digital. Now many are stepping back and reviewing their suite of event technology, as they plan the right hybrid strategy for their business. Feedback is frequently that no one platform provides all the functionality required and can often be an expensive purchase. Many are keen to understand what new technology solutions are emerging. This session will support you in viewing your technology purchase as you would a venue choice and considering how your strategy and budget best fits with the technology options available. We’re aiming to update you on the emerging technology innovations which could support your business. Even if you don’t make the final purchasing decision you want to be in a position to influence.

The top takeaways from this world first hybrid event for hybrid events.