Extension of Hybrid Events Trend in the Post-pandemic Era

The global pandemic has come to an end with many countries easing their travel restriction on both local and overseas visitors. When geological mobility gradually resumed normally, will the event practice we have adopted in recent years be changed or evolved? The pandemic times making virtual events companies’ market value boosted to its highest level than ever, this is certainly supported by the survey result showing 75% of workers in the U.S. are either entirely working from home or in a hybrid arrangement. The former may not be widely adopted as the pandemic got under control. At the same time, the latter would form the new trend of business meetings and events in the coming decades, as people start realizing the benefits of this mode of working, being able to demonstrate organizational operations benefits and employees’ wellbeings. 

Hybrid events combine both in-person and virtual experiences of business setting such as seminars, trade shows, career fairs, conferences, etc. Arranging an event in both ways allow in-person interactions for an instant touch of communication as well as being able to take care of those interested parties located remotely, making an organization develop on a more international level by breaking into a new market. Apart from catering to more target audience in a business setting, holding events in 2 ways bring in an additional source of income as well, with more available seats provided, especially for those limited in offering hot hit events - concerts, sports events, and award shows, etc. Whenever you want to be involved, you’re invited. 

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How’s the hybrid mode beneficial to organizers & attendees?

Reaching out wider audience with online sessions opened in parallel 

As an aspiring business owner, you don’t want to miss any exposure opportunities in the potential market. Target audiences located overseas with interest in your products can stay connected with you with virtual events held, just need to remark the event time with the different time zone. The audience can stay tuned to any product launch or information announcement for their purchase or investment decision. 

Target Audience who required hybrid events: 

1. Attendee’s immobility due to the high cost of travel - time, money, safety, and health concerns. 

2. Organizational client with a limited travel allowance and time crash with corporation events. The time effectiveness may be low since time & money costs may far more than the value of the meeting.

3. There’s always a capacity limitation for large-scale events, due to infectious health concerns or it may last for just a short period. 

Offering one more channel raises the consideration of participation for the interested party. Engaging a wider community is essential for market breakthrough and sharing the business value across the boundary.

How organization benefits from hybrid events?

Hybrid events can be held internally and externally to drive the company’s morale and strengthen customer relationship management respectively. 

There’s rarely an occasion that you can gather all your internal stakeholders in one place and timezone. You don’t want to exclude any key parties in once a year-gathering event where it’s a good chance to let the voice of every level and department can be heard and openly discussed. Hybrid events like town halls, spirit weeks, and sales season kickoff briefing sessions are occasions when important organizational updates will be announced and parties from different locations can share locational insights. Selecting a decent venue open for international parties makes the event more inclusive, diverse, and engaging. While offering live stream sessions allows the enthusiastic moments to be spread to every branch worldwide, configuring the corporation as an integrated community.  

Read more: Why You Should Switch to Organizing Hybrid Events

Strategies for hybrid events arrangement 

Boosting reputation & sponsorship 

It is found that hybrid events have a higher return on investment from their scalability, and hence more sponsors can be acquired, making the event more renowned eventually. It’s a win-win scenario where the sponsors can benefit from higher exposure with both online & offline parties, local & overseas. The increased sponsorship amount gives more capital for event organizing, helping to offset the operating cost of large-scale events.

Track your audience with the digital footprint

Apart from increasing attendance from mass audience reach, hybrid events allow organizers to collect valuable user data and draw customer insights for better business decision deployment. Attendee interactions in the event are tracked by their feedback through polls, surveys, and questionnaires - the choice of each audience counts. Organizers can then map out key user insights from demographic & preference analysis, making data-driven product design and marketing strategies afterward, making investment more precise and higher conversion chances coming. 

Maximizing content capability 

Holding hybrid events allows the organization to store the resources online and make them downloadable to participants. The shareable nature boosts the product’s exposure to the larger interested party, with the algorithm of suggestion of content on social media, any related segment will be reached. Moreover, virtual software allows a conference to be recorded and uploaded to social media. Not only the random audience will come across it, but the participants can also have a revision of it if they found the event insightful with the recording. The company can summarise the key highlights from the conference, such as product updates and key insights from guests, and make it a social media post for sharing, allowing the audience to have a glance at what the business does.

Apart from the quality of the material, the way you distribute it can have a determinate effect on the conversion chances. The longer you retain the valuable information in the right place, the more likely it will be viewed by potential customers. Making content on-demand allows attendees and outsiders to review what key info is covered as they may not be able to stay attentive during the whole course. 

A perfect rundown allows the event participants to stay engaged with the event. The length of the event should be well controlled with a maximum attention time of around 15 - 30 minutes for attendees to stay focused. You cannot overwhelm your audience with abundant content as well but try to get them involved in other formats like small group discussions on particular topics.

Should I consider a hybrid event as a long-term engagement blueprint? 

The new trend established during the past 2 years is expected to continue as it explores new chances for the demonstration of a corporate image to the world. Incorporating both formats into your events allows the wider public to engage with the business more variably. 

Interested to understand more about lead conversion in online events? Click here to know more!