2020 turned the events industry upside down, and we all found ourselves asking a lot of questions.
So if you’re reading this, you may be wondering things like:
- How are others navigating this new environment?
- How can we ensure we throw safe events?
- What is a hybrid event, and will it work for me?
These are the questions we set out to answer in our newest eBook, "Keeping Up With the Connectors: The strategies, tactics, and tools from the minds behind Cvent CONNECT."
Here, we’ll share an exclusive look at chapter 1: The Decision to Go Hybrid.
The Rise of Hybrid Events
Before diving in further, let’s define some terms. What is a hybrid event? Hybrid events combine both in-person and virtual experiences and are an essential part of the new normal in the events industry (Cvent, 2021).
In our new world, they are growing in popularity. Sixty-three percent of organizations plan on hosting hybrid events post-pandemic. (Forrester, 2021)
While hybrid events offer many benefits—-including the ability to deliver both the best of virtual and in-person experiences—they are not without complexities and trade-offs.
Next, let’s look at how the decision was made for Cvent CONNECT 2021 to go hybrid.
The Decision to Turn Cvent CONNECT Into a Hybrid Event
Does a hybrid event make the most sense for you? Let’s walk through the variables we weighed for Cvent CONNECT to help you make your decision.
One of the first things you’ll need to establish when determining which event format makes the most sense for you is who will be involved in the decision. For us, “everyone was in the room,” explains our Director of Meetings and Events Rachel Andrews.
After you’ve assembled your team, the next step is to dig into the tough questions.
Here are a few of the questions we asked at our internal roundtables.
Does it make sense?
- Does your content work well for both in-person and virtual presentations?
- Can you repurpose produced content for other programs?
- Can you show the ROI to your sponsors?
What are the goals?
- Do your goals align with going hybrid?
- Does your venue have capacity restrictions?
How will attendees feel?
- Are there safety concerns?
- Do they have restricted travel budgets?
Want to see the full list of questions we walked through? Download the eBook.
After walking through these questions, we explored the benefits and potential challenges so that we could make an informed decision.
The Benefits and Potential Challenges of Hybrid Events
Benefits of Hybrid Events
Extended reach. Hybrid events offer a huge opportunity for reach—you can reach customers, prospects, and attendees that you may not have otherwise been able to access were it only an in-person event. This further reach also provides more opportunities to spread your message. In fact, “some hybrid events are seeing 3-6x the reach of in-person only events!” explains our Rachel Andrews.
Increased accessibility and inclusivity. Hybrid events increase accessibility and inclusivity. This includes the ability for a larger audience to join who otherwise may not have been able to due to budget, travel restrictions, or other reasons. Additionally, our tech team and hybrid event platform can enhance the attendee experience by adding closed captioning for all presentations and can provide more holistic attendee profiles (e.g., the ability to include pronouns).
Community feel. Hybrid events make our customer/attendee base feel more community-like. With event app discussion boards, virtual and in-person networking and exhibitor booths, and the ability for in-depth group discussions, attendees can continue the conversation in a variety of formats and places.
Accommodating varying comfort levels. Hybrid events accommodate attendees’ varying comfort levels for attending an event. From health and safety concerns to personal scheduling conflicts, thermostat settings to social distancing preferences, we’re able to adjust to nearly everyone’s needs with a hybrid event.
Addressing different levels of interest. Hybrid events address different levels of attendee interest. For example, passively interested people can pick and choose what to attend virtually—an attendee has the ability to learn about one topic in-depth online. While on the flip side, a deeply invested attendee can be all-in and attend in person to take advantage of programming offered at all levels. With hybrid events, different levels of interest are all addressed, and attendees can access content on-demand as well as in person.
Potential Challenges
Comfort and safety concerns. We've all experienced a world-changing pandemic, and that has created physical and emotional challenges for all of us. We want to address comfort and safety levels for those attending in-person events—and these are frequently changing.
Event fatigue. There is a “firehose effect” from the recent surge of events—a flood of live events coming back AND people are still doing virtual events on top of those. We don’t want to contribute to event fatigue.
Summing it Up: The Decision to Take Cvent CONNECT 2021 Hybrid
Rachel Andrews explains our final decision to take Cvent CONNECT 2021 Hybrid
“[Moving to hybrid] wasn’t a hard decision—it was an easy decision. Easy in the sense that we needed to make sure that we were offering an experience to ALL of our attendees... We wanted to make sure our customers were able to connect with us regardless of the medium.”
Next: Discover the 6 Pillars of a Great Hybrid Event
A great hybrid event couples a dazzling virtual experience with all the in-person events elements we know and love. Discover the six elements of a great hybrid event with key best practices to apply at your event in the full "Keeping Up With the Connectors" eBook.
