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What Is a Hybrid Event and How Do You Plan One?

INTRODUCTION

If you’re learning about what a hybrid event is and how it can benefit your organization, read here to find ways to keep online and in-person audiences engaged.

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Hosting a successful hybrid event requires extensive planning and coordination. You’re managing two live events in many ways, each one calling for impeccable execution.

Hybrid events are great for everything from town hall meetings to conferences that require integrating an online audience. But, many of the businesses and institutions that can benefit the most from hosting one don’t fully understand what a hybrid event is.

We’ve created this article to demonstrate how hybrid events can benefit your organization and provide insights on how to host a hybrid event of your own.

Two Events in One: What Is a Hybrid Event?

Hybrid Events Aren’t Meant to Replace Live Events

Most live, online events offer attendees an immediacy and convenience that makes them an apt substitute for traditional in-person counterparts. While courses, presentations, and other events steadily shift to an online-only format, hybrid events offer an equal balance of value to a local, live audience and those who attend online.

The Online Parts of Hybrid Events Aren't Secondary

Often, in-person events with a high production value will include a live-streaming broadcast to give online viewers a glimpse into the event. While this is a great add-on bonus for a live event, online viewers won’t feel they’ve fully experienced the gathering to the same degree as the in-person audience.

A successful hybrid event should appear to seamlessly integrate in-person and online elements as a single event, despite the unique challenges stemming from two different kinds of production taking place at once.

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What Are Some Examples of Hybrid Events?

Hybrid events include, but are not limited to:

Conferences
Workshops
Seminars
Trade Shows

Job Fairs
Fundraisers
Exhibitions
Company Town Halls

Hybrid events are produced to provide the same access to event features as an in-person audience. If the in-room audience can ask a presenter a question, for example, online audience members are given the same opportunity.

What Are the Benefits of Hosting a Hybrid Event?

Hybrid events take a coordinated effort, but when executed successfully, they come with advantages beyond what an organization can accomplish with either a physical or online event alone.

Benefits of hosting your live hybrid event include:

It offers a global reach in attendance for an otherwise locally held event.

You can foster high levels of engagement with participants.

Anyone with an internet connection can participate.

Online attendees actively share the energy and excitement of a live event.

You can attain greater brand awareness than with local-only events.

Gain deep analytic insights from interactive elements.

The event is cost-effective for people who can’t afford to travel.

More people can attend with minimal impact from pollution and fossil fuels expended from travel, making the event environmentally friendly.

How to Plan a Hybrid Event Successfully

Even if you have experience hosting physical or online events, preparing a hybrid event requires careful planning—you’re hosting two events that mirror one another. Each event requires special talent and coordination.

Make a Timeline

The secret to any successful hybrid event is to plan everything well in advance: map out every minute of your event down to the last detail as best as you can.

Your production notes will be used by the speakers, entertainment, event host, moderators, and other people involved. But they’re also used to coordinate how technology will be utilized from one moment to the next.

Your production team will be making transition effects, camera changes, loading polls, and online chat events—all of these need to coincide with the right moments of in-person events.

Make a Technology and Equipment Checklist

You can’t produce an event that relies on the synchronization of technology and talent without having every item in place. Make sure you have a detailed list of everything you need for the online streaming of your in-person event, including:

Cameras or camera feeds for streaming the event

Quality audio equipment

A quality internet connection with a backup service, if possible

Cables for connecting equipment and power supplies

Computers with all necessary software loaded and tested

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Have a Backup Plan

Planning a complex event requires practice and a coordinated effort for everything to go as planned, but it also calls for knowing what to do when something goes wrong.

Being prepared with your technology doesn’t just involve checking all of your equipment and connections and running through changes—it calls for testing everything on-site before the event.

When you’ve done everything in your power to see that everything is running as expected, there’s still the possibility you’ll face some form of technology failure. Below are some technical problems that occur in hybrid events and possible preparations you can make.

You could lose power, in which case a backup generator can save the day.

You could lose your primary internet connection, in which case you can have a hotspot ready to take over the stream, or members of production can be streaming from multiple locations with different services, so it’s a matter of switching from one source to another.

You could have a severe server outage, with some of your cloud computing or online software not operating. You can have a separate server service already loaded and in place.

Coordinate with the Right Production Team

Keep in mind that a hybrid event requires synchronizing two kinds of events, so you’ll work with talents who possess the expertise to bridge these productions in three crucial areas:

Producing in-person events, including lighting, sound, audio, presenters, entertainment, and any event-specific coordination.
Producing an online event with computer and internet setup, programming graphics, live-streaming, interactive elements, moderation, and managing technical challenges for computers, sound, and video.
Coordinating with moderators—both live and for online audiences, synchronizing in-person camera feeds and sound to your online experience.

How to Host a Hybrid Event: 4 Core Elements

Your first hybrid event may be a seminar, a conference, a company training event, or any number of gatherings. Incorporate these four core elements into your event, so your best efforts yield a great experience for your in-person and online audiences alike.

1. Oversee and Coordinate In-Person and Online Elements of Your Event

Running a hybrid event means ensuring the in-person and online aspects both run smoothly. It’s vital that everyone involved aligns with your vision and works together to meet the objectives of the event. Do everything you can to ensure that the presentation is equally effective for your in-person and online audiences. If a transition or production element helps reinforce the message for one audience, is there a way to duplicate the experience for the rest of the attendees?

2. Synchronize Your Knowledge Base with Your Online Production Team

With your in-person production in good hands, you’ll coordinate with your online hybrid production team so they can help keep your attendees engaged. Your online production will keep your audience in the loop, letting them know what to expect with upcoming portions of your programming—providing consistent context for your event.

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3. Have an Online Representative or Moderator Dedicated to Your Online Audience

In many instances, the best way to help synchronize your online audience’s experience to your live event is through an in-person moderator whose sole purpose is to advocate for an equally engaging experience for online guests.

This moderator will field questions for online attendees and host interactive elements of your event. If networking is a component of the in-person event, the right online moderator will breathe life into online networking opportunities.

4. Focus on Equal Interactivity and Inclusiveness

A successful hybrid event will be equally enthralling online and in person. If the energy level tilts in one direction or the other, you’ll get mixed feedback from attendees.

Your online audience should have virtual breakout rooms equivalent to in-person booths or be included in fielded questions—whatever in-room guests can enjoy, your online representative is there to make sure online attendees are seen and heard.

For instance, if in-person attendees break for a hosted dinner at the event, you can present each online audience member with an equivalent DoorDash card. Use breaks to conduct online polls, raffles, surveys, and anything that can be uniquely tailored to your brand and event.

Networking opportunities are a valuable component of most in-person events, so provide opportunities for your online attendees to network as well. You never want anyone to feel like they’re missing out because they couldn't make the trip.

Are you ready to host

your hybrid event?

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Rally Point Webinars has been partnering with clients for hybrid events for well over a decade, helping to produce high-energy events that are equally engaging for your online audience as their in-person counterparts. If you’re ready to get started with your hybrid event, give us a call today!