Hybrid events production: With our extensive experience of both online and live events, we can help you prepare your hybrid event like no other. We can advise and support you in every aspect of making your hybrid event a success. It all starts with the location, of course. We have several beautiful event locations that are perfect for hybrid events.
Next, we can help you create the content for the hybrid event: from guest speakers to side-acts and from interactive sessions to drinks boxes and fun breakout activities. There are all sorts of possibilities. Even when it comes to producing animated logos, subtitles, bumpers or leaders, you’ve come to the right ‘hybrid’.
Whích ones will be live and who will be virtual?
If you are organizing a hybrid event, it is always difficult to decide in advance who you are going to invite to attend the event live and who will receive an invitation to the hybrid online program. However, you could also leave such a choice up to the guests themselves. For many, it is convenient to be able to follow the event digitally, while others prefer the live presence.
At international meetings it is especially convenient for foreign guests to have a digital presence. It saves a lot of time and money. We are happy to advise you on the best way to send out invitations for your hybrid event.
Event Enrichers & Entertainment
The flow of a hybrid event is super important. Think of it as a TV broadcast, where there is always a musical tune at the entrance of a new speaker, called the touches. This helps you avoid uncomfortable silences. If you combine this with images, we talk about a bumper. In this way you can adjust the image and sound completely to suit your event and your brand. But also voice-overs, the right subtitles, the right special effects..
All elements that you can use to enrich the hybrid event. Do you really want a complete event? Then opt for surprising interludes, such as a mind hacking performance by Victor Mids.
Ensure interaction
During the event itself, continuing to excite is essential. You can do this by, for example, Q&As, where guests can submit questions via smartphone and they are answered by the speakers. Polls, where people can vote on statements via their smartphone, also work very well. A moderator, who handles questions from the live and online audience, ensures that you are really there.
How does organizing a hybrid event work?
If you’re going to host a hybrid event, it’s more important than ever to focus primarily on the guest and viewer. On the one hand, you have a subset of guests who are live at the event venue. They are included in all the live experiences they have on location. The other group, often the majority of guests, are literally on the other side of the digital highway.
It is a challenge to also hold on to these people and to continuously stimulate their senses, so that they are involved in the event and stay involved. Interaction with both the guests on location and the online guests is essential! Polls, Q&As, chats, statements, presentation techniques, image design, dynamics – all components that play a very important role in a hybrid event. Event Management is more important than ever. With expertshare, you’re taking on an expert event partner who can fully manage the hybrid event for you.
Content production, recording direction, event management, catering, atmosphere and decorations..Experstshare takes care of it all!
Hybrid Events production: From content to catering
The production of a hybrid event requires much more preparation than a live event. In fact, you merge two events: the live event and the online event. For the “live” part of the event, things like the location, the design and decoration, the catering and guest registration, for example, are very important. For the online audience, much more attention is needed for everything that takes place within the frames of the camera view.
A seamless direction, the right camera images at the right moments, dynamics in image and sound, image design, voice-overs, musical intros. All aspects that are much more necessary at a hybrid event and also require much more time and attention. With years of experience from our event and AV professionals, we know exactly how to make your hybrid event unforgettable.
What type of event is a hybrid suitable for?
You can actually use a hybrid event for almost any type of event. Obviously, the hybrid concept is ideal for congresses and conferences. But also when it comes to business events such as product introductions, customer days and dealer days, a hybrid event can work perfectly.
Even when it comes to internal events, such as HR meetings, staff meetings, farewell ceremonies and the like, it can be convenient to organize the hybrid so that not every branch has to go on the road. In short, the hybrid event is very versatile and can be used for a variety of events. And the possibilities of multiple events taking place in multiple locations at the same time but still being connected via hybrid are totally unique!
Soon physical events will make a comeback. Marketers everywhere are considering their options. Stay virtual? Go back to just the physical? Or perhaps have the best of both worlds, becoming “hybrid”.
Hybrid events are the current affairs, and for good reason. By becoming hybrid, we can extend the size of conferences and events to reach audiences of any size, anywhere in the world. Suddenly event strategies have potential that we never imagined before. And by bringing the power of digital engagement to events, we can learn more about attendees and more effectively find the best leads, boost the sales funnel and revenue.
Hesitation for virtual events
But there are considerations. Hybrid events production can be more expensive. There are all the expenses of hosting a physical event (event spaces, food, hotels, entertainment), but also the need to invest in digital event software and broadcast capabilities to host the virtual elements of the event.
The costs are definitely higher, but so is the hybrid ROI. More reach means more leads, and better data means higher conversions. But there is another advantage to going hybrid: sponsorship revenue.
Why hybrid events have a gigantic sponsorship opportunity
Physical event sponsorship hasn’t changed much over the years. There’s the usual set of packages that offer the same basic benefits: signage, speaking slots, booths, and the ability to put branding on different elements of the event.
But in this digital-first world, sponsors will expect more, and hybrid events completely change what sponsorship packages look like.
Branding
Unlike physical spaces where signage is limited to the available wall space, and let’s be honest, is rarely seen; digital environments present a new element of branding possibilities. Virtual events are blank canvases that you can paint, and you can offer sponsorship branding, of all kinds, virtually anywhere. And since you can put them anywhere and they are clickable, digital signage has much greater value than physical signage.
Sponsor logos can be linked to sponsors’ booths, sponsor sessions, or even their websites. That’s a measurable advantage. And with virtual event environments often including many unique digital spaces, there are more brand elements to sell.
Booths
Perhaps the biggest reason companies sponsor events and conferences is to have a booth space to connect with attendees. Booths often offer brochures, handshakes, and sales speeches. This makes event attendees a bit wary of engaging. No one wants to carry around a giant bag of brochures anymore. But offering booths changes that dynamic. We can now offer customized sponsor booth spaces where attendees can watch videos, presentations, and demos. We can offer tons of content that is just a click away.
But what’s even more valuable to sponsors, is that from a virtual booth, you can offer direct CTAs like links to a free trial, pricing page, or product page. Attendees can chat with representatives, make appointments, or even sales meetings.
Presentation opportunities
Another great advantage of sponsorship offers is the ability to deliver a presentation to the audience. Depending on the level of sponsorship, you can offer talks or breakout sessions.
By adding a digital event space, you can offer additional presentation opportunities that can be easily integrated into the experience. Presentations can be held at sponsor booths, or there may be a sponsor room where breakout sessions are available.
Sponsored Engagement
Hybrid events also introduce partners to entirely new forms of sponsorship benefits. You can offer virtual chats, networking lounges, and virtual forums. This could mean simply scheduling a virtual experience or allowing sponsors to host the experience and drive direct engagement. You can even offer sponsors the opportunities to host their own virtual parties and happy hours.
Entertain
Speaking of parties, one thing sponsors love is to put their name to the entertainment, and there are a number of ways in which hybrid events increase the opportunity to do just that. In some cases, the entertainment at the physical event, such as the shows, can be streamed live to the virtual audience.
This offers a number of branding opportunities. But often there will be entertainment that is exclusive to the virtual audience. This can be anything from games, virtual cocktail parties, virtual concerts, and more. And all of this can be branded and sponsored.
The data
This is the watershed. When you add virtual elements to hybrid events, suddenly you have much more to offer than impressions and exposure; you have data. Each digital component can deliver measurable results. Each brand placement can provide statistics on who clicked on logos. Virtual booths not only deliver the names of each visitor, but what content they downloaded, what videos they watched, what questions they asked, and what CTAs they clicked on.
Virtual presentations can also capture results of polls and surveys, questions asked, and content downloads. Everywhere there is virtual engagement, there will be measurable results that you can deliver to your sponsors.
Live and On Demand
Hybrid events also extend the value of sponsorships long after the live event. Physical events have a limited duration. But hybrid events can move into an on demand phase, where all the elements of the virtual events remain active. This means that sponsors can continue to generate impressions, leads and engage prospects for a long period.
Packaging
In this new world of hybrid events, sponsorships can now be packaged in a variety of ways. Sponsor tiers can have much more definable differences and advantages. Events can offer more opportunities for impressions, presentations, and engagement. And most importantly, you can offer the insights and data from each engaged prospect that will result in a higher conversion rate. This is what sponsors want most and is now yours to offer.
Hybrid events are more complex to build and deliver. We are now bridging the gap between physical and virtual worlds. But the benefits are immeasurable. Sponsorships will be easier to package, and easier to sell. With virtual and hybrid events, if you can dream it, you can build it. And someone will definitely pay to sponsor it.
Feel free to set up a conversation to talk about webinar or virtual event projects.
FAQ’s on hybrid events production
1. What is hybrid events production?
It is the audiovisual production and event technology used to organize a virtual or hybrid event. Virtual event production can include services, equipment, and support from technical experts.
2. Why invest in a dedicated event production team?
To deliver an exceptional experience to attendees, you’ll need audio-visual equipment and resources to support the behind-the-scenes of your event. Remember, anything that looks too amateurish, blurry or improvised will likely turn off your audience.
3. When to consider an audio-visual production?
- When your in-house staff has limited resources;
- When you’re planning a hybrid event where you need to combine remote and face-to-face speakers;
- When it requires several technical elements such as background music, pre-recorded video or visual transitions.
Conclusion
The pandemic has brought us challenges and discoveries. It’s important to have learned and, more importantly, to know how to learn from it. In the la;st two years, there has been a 180 degree turn to the virtual. Everyone has participated in or held online events, sometimes with mixed success, but with good intent: to reach their constituencies.
If you want to reconnect with your customers, it is a priority to keep a virtual component to your future events, which we will then call hybrid events*. We firmly believe that the future is in hybrid events, because this model presents many advantages and opportunities for organizations that wish to transform expenses into investments.
The hybrid mode offers new opportunities in terms of content, as it allows unlimited access to the most renowned speakers, panelists, artists and other presenters from here and abroad. Since you don’t have to travel, it is much easier to reach these personalities and thus increase the credibility, notoriety and popularity of your event.
There is also the opportunity to generate new revenue. In the case of a paid event, the hybrid mode allows you to offer a variable fee schedule adapted to the chosen experience and the guest’s profile (in-person ticket, remote access, limited access to the program, etc.).
The hybrid event is the future! The opportunities are endless and multiple. And the best part is that it’s measurable and quantifiable! A hybrid event offers two simultaneous experiences: in-person (guests present in the studio or in the room) and online (guests connected remotely with no postal code limit!).
