11 Actionable Tips For A Successful Hybrid Event

Hybrid events are the future! Hybrid events are the best of both worlds! 

As event organizers, you might have come across these statements often. But do you know the exact steps to host a successful hybrid event? Do you know how to evaluate a reliable hybrid event platform? Do you know the best approach one should adopt when it comes to the hybrid event experience, content, and marketing?

If your answer is no to at least one of these questions, this article is for you! Here we talk about 11 actionable hybrid event tips you can follow to make your next event a grand success.

Hybrid Event Tips For Event Success

Event Experience

1. Build Separate Registration Paths For Live and Virtual Attendees

Offering a seamless registration process is the first step to guaranteeing a great event experience. So, always customize the registration paths for your in-person and virtual attendees. 

Tailor your registration process based on the type of event they choose and do away with irrelevant questions. For instance, if a person wishes to attend an event virtually, there’s no point in asking him about the type of food he prefers or his food allergies. 

2. Choose The Perfect Venue

According to a recent study by Marklectic, 35% of event organizers find it challenging to find the perfect venue to host their hybrid events. The venue for your hybrid event must be big enough to accommodate the live attendees, your team, and all necessary equipment. If you plan to set up installations, ensure the place is spacious enough to set these up in a hassle-free manner.

A strong internet connection, uninterrupted power supply, and on-site help desks are some of the other factors you should consider to organize a smooth hybrid event. While selecting the venue, look for a place that gives you entry at least a week before the event so that you get time to rehearse your event.

3. Choose The Best Event App

Consider the range of customizability, in-built engagement tools, content delivery systems, and event management solutions offered by event apps. 

For a hybrid event, it is best to go for a custom app that provides end-to-end event management solutions, from creating registration pages to getting event insights. In addition, engagement tools like chat rooms and AI matchmaking, along with the facility to support both live and on-demand content, are some of the essential features you should look for.

4. Know Your Audience

Knowing your audience may seem like the most basic advice, but neglecting this part can ruin your event. Hybrid events are designed to cater to two sets of audiences- virtual and live. Hence, it is crucial to understand both groups’ expectations and preferences to give them a supreme event experience.

Avoid longer sessions, hire an emcee, and include gamification and networking opportunities to ensure your virtual audience gets the best out of your event without feeling like second-class citizens.

Event Content

5. Develop An Event Content Strategy

The most challenging part of a hybrid event is to develop an event content strategy to educate and entertain attendees. Attendees no longer want to be mere content consumers but active participants in your event. And the safest way to make it possible is to craft content with the virtual audience in mind. If you can retain your virtual attendees, you can entertain your live attendees too!

Analyze your event goals to determine the best delivery format for each type of content and batch them out accordingly. For instance, not every content needs to be presented live. Instead, create pre-recorded videos that can either be presented virtually or with the help of a live host. 

6. Go The Extra Mile For Your Virtual Attendees

The virtual event can never surpass the live event in terms of experience. Therefore, it is necessary to go the extra mile for your virtual attendees to bridge this gap. Start by charging them a lower registration fee compared to live attendees. This is because virtual attendees won’t require venue essentials like furniture and food, so charging them for these is unreasonable.

Create tailored sessions like chats with speakers exclusively for virtual attendees where they can ask questions live. This helps attendees feel more involved in your event and gives them a stellar event experience.

7. Provide On-demand Content For a Limited Period

On-demand content benefits your attendees, sponsors, and even your brand. For example, attendees who failed to attend the event or those who want a second watch can use the recorded version. It also helps sponsors of your event and your brand a chance to stay on your attendees’ minds for longer periods.

But providing access to on-demand content all around the year isn’t recommended as the chances of event attendees never returning to your event content is higher. For best results, always provide it for a limited period, like two weeks or a month or two.

8. Repurpose Content At The Earliest

Make content repurposing your priority right after your event. Repurpose event content for future promotion of events, blogs, youtube videos, and infographics and promote it across suitable social channels. Also repurpose pre-event lives, webinars, or podcasts into suitable formats.

This repurposed content helps create brand awareness, build an engaging community, and even leave the door open for you to be a brand authority in the coming years.

Event Marketing and Management

9. Leverage Social Media To Your Advantage

The more event buzz you create, the better reach your event gets! So, promote your event across all social media channels in various content formats, from Reels to Stories to Twitter Spaces. Spread the news through Facebook Events, conduct Instagram lives or webinars, and organize giveaways and contests to give maximum exposure to your event.

Encourage event sponsors, speakers, and influencers to spread the word through their respective social media handles. You can even provide them with content to post to ensure the right message gets circulated.

10. Bring Your Sponsors Under The Limelight

Hybrid events are perfect for giving your sponsors the exposure they expect and deserve. Some of the ways in which you can spotlight them include making them host an event, sponsor an event session, or setting on-site and online sponsor booths. 

You can also strategically include sponsor brand details like their brand logo in event ads, emails, on-site banners, and event registration pages.

11. Gain Critical Insights About Your Event

How successful was your event? Which were the most engaging sessions? These are some of the questions every event organizer has after an event. In addition, insights about the impact of your event help identify the mistakes you should avoid during future events.

A good hybrid event app gives critical insights about your event like engagement rate, most-liked session, least-liked session, and satisfaction rate of your attendees. Apart from this, you can also collect reviews from your attendees through surveys.

Following these 11 hybrid event tips can guarantee you a successful event that offers a stellar event experience and supreme value to your attendees. Try using these tips while hosting your next hybrid event, and let us know how it goes!