, As a savvy event manager, you’ve probably already organized hybrid events or at least started to look into them. To help you make your next hybrid event more dynamic or simply to help you get started, here are 17 hybrid events ideas for 2022 to implement for successful events. But before we get to them, let’s first get a question out of the way.
What are hybrid events anyway?
As mentioned in an earlier blog, hybrid events are those in which the audience participates simultaneously in two distinct ways. Part of the audience attends the event in-person, while the other part, usually the majority, attends in a virtual way. Considering the reality of corporate events, the in-person part usually takes place in a studio, an office meeting room, or a hotel.
It is worth saying that the hybrid format is not new, it just became more prominent during the need for social distancing. Common examples of this in our day-to-day lives are talk shows and renowned festivals such as Rock in Rio and Carnival where part of the audience is present and the other part can follow the event on TV, or on the Internet. With great hybrid events ideas, you can become very successful in your niche.
The 7 advantages of a hybrid event
Let’s start with the benefits of doing a hybrid event before going into the 17 hybrid event ideas.
- Exponential increase in reach
- Reduction of logistical costs
- Optimization of investment
- Post-event relationship and networking
- Access to post-event content to re-use
- User behavior data to improve future events
- Attraction of sponsors
1. Use animators to energize your event
To keep your audience attentive and feel close to the speakers, hire dynamic presenters! You may have speakers who are highly qualified in their respective fields, but who may not be experienced speakers and comfortable with the audience. Hiring moderators will make your audience feel more engaged because of their responsiveness and ability to bounce back on what’s happening at the event.
2. Invite international speakers
This is one of the main advantages of hybrid events, all the barriers related to transportation go away to give you more opportunities to make your event unmissable! If you want to invite an important personality to speak at your event, like Richard Branson for example, you won’t need to finance his potential long trip, even though he doesn’t need you to fly to the stars. International travel at home is possible thanks to the hybrid!
3. Add a countdown clock on your event site
Ideal to give your event that little touch of imminence that makes your guests not want to miss it. By adding a countdown clock on your event website, you will stimulate all the people going there and potentially convince some of them to register. Who doesn’t feel pressure when faced with a countdown? With the event management platform, you can add it to your event site as you see fit for a more immersive experience.
4. Leverage your event management platform
Your goal: maximum attendees and engagement. So to make sure you maximize your participation and engagement rates, use your EMS (Event Management Software) to manage your event communications and make use of its interactive services. Never forget to include emails and SMS reminders in your event communication. Be sure that your guests will note your event in their agenda. With expertshare, launch your communications campaigns as easily as your interactive services such as voting, quizzes, polls, Q&A and word clouds at any time!
5. Break your sessions into several sequences
To avoid loss of attention and instead captivate your audience, sequence your sessions to make them more dynamic. For example, you can introduce the speakers for a few minutes, engage your audience with a quiz right afterwards, and then go through the event by ending with a word cloud or a poll. It is recommended that you keep your session to a maximum of 60 minutes, especially for a plenary.
6. Launch a survey after each session
Take a short survey after each session to gauge the attention span of your participants. This will allow you to see if the speech or activities are effective. For on-site attendees, have them vote via their event app. With the Eventdrive app, it’s very easy to boost your engagement rate by allowing your attendees to participate in quizzes, votes, word clouds, take surveys and ask questions.
7. Plan coffee breaks
You know best! What better way to rest your brain and boost your energy than with a coffee break? Especially when your event takes place in the morning. Let your participants fill up on good vibes, it will allow them to chat with each other too!
8. Broadcast videos during breaks
To make your coffee break more enjoyable, don’t hesitate to broadcast live videos on site and remotely to entertain your guests. For example, you can show them your new commercials, or even your old ones for a little corporate culture moment!
9. Include musical cues
To announce the different breaks, play a little jingle or a little melody to mark the beginning of them. Do the same to mark the end of the breaks. You will attract your participants’ attention again and reactivate their senses to be operational during your event!
10. Call back the Q&A service
You don’t want your attendees to get stuck on a question in their head when you present important information. That’s why it’s important to remind them that there is a dedicated service available to take their minds off any questions they might have for you! Take some time at the end or during your session to answer them.
11. Call to action
Whether remotely or onsite, invite your participants to speak up! Ask questions or seek input from people in the audience to make them actors, not just spectators. On expertshare, the “raise your hand” feature allows all online participants to ask to take the stage to speak. For the more extroverted among them, this will make people happy!
12. Allow online and face-to-face participants to see each other
For more interactivity and immersion in your event, give your onsite attendees the opportunity to see the online participants and speakers who are speaking. You can also make sure that remote participants have a visual on the on-site participants so that they feel truly integrated in the assembly. It’s important to properly manage the video capture of your event!
13. Call your participants by their first name directly
To promote closeness with the audience, don’t hesitate to call them by their first name when they interact in the online chat or when they address you on site. You are showing them that you are speaking to them specifically and therefore want them to feel included and closer to you.
14. Invite and @Note your participants directly in the chat
Sometimes people are afraid to speak in front of an entire audience or even have the right equipment at a distance. That’s why you should encourage your participants at the beginning of the event to use the chat to share their opinions. To avoid having your participants miss your response because it is buried in the mass of other messages, mention them individually directly. This shows them that you want to respond in person and, more importantly, allows them to see your response.
15. Send goodies to your remote participants
Hybrid events are particularly effective in terms of varied participant experiences. If your in-person attendees receive a small bag of goodies, there’s no way your remote attendees will not receive anything! Make sure you collect their address and send them the same goodies in a timely manner so they feel as valued as the on-site attendees.
16. Encourage your participants to use the online Instaphoto
Whether they’re onsite or online, your attendees will always have something to share. So give them the opportunity to express themselves in pictures! With our event app, everyone can do this with ease.
17. Launch word clouds
When you start a topic, end a session or express a thought, ask your audience to give feedback by putting a word on it to create a word cloud. All the words will appear in real time on the screen and everyone will want to participate!
Conclusion: Hybrid events ideas
Here you are, with your hands full of good hybrid events ideas to animate your next hybrid events! If you have any other hybrid events ideas, don’t hesitate to share them with us. After all, sharing is the name of the game in the event industry.
