What is a Hybrid Event?

If you want to host an event for your personal or business brand, you are likely considering ways to maximise its impact. As a live event PR team, we, too, look for new and innovative ways to elevate our clients’ events. 

With any event, you want as much attendance and profit as possible. One way to achieve this that you may not have considered before is to make your event a hybrid event.

You have likely heard of a hybrid event before, as they have existed for decades, but you may need to learn its true potential or how a hybrid can completely change how you host events. 

What Forms a Hybrid Event?

A hybrid event is precisely what it says on the tin. It depends on a combination of in-person and digital elements. All aspects of a hybrid event are tailored to your in-person and virtual audience to give everyone involved the best possible experience. 

Hybrid events are the future of the event world, so now is the best time to consider hosting your own. 

How Hybrid Events Have Evolved.

Hybrid events have existed for decades, so they are nothing new. However, they have certainly changed over the years. 

With the introduction of the internet and smart devices in most homes worldwide, hybrid events have become much more popular and more technologically advanced. 

Hosting a good event is hard, and while hosting a hybrid event makes the process easier in some respects, hosting an excellent and balanced hybrid event can be even more challenging. 

Though there are some difficult aspects of hosting a hybrid event,  the overall impact of the event makes it all well worth it. 

The Positives of Hosting a Hybrid Event

If you are still deciding whether to make your upcoming event a hybrid, here are some positives of hosting one. 

Expand your reach.

Capacity is a limitation when you host an in-person event. Even if you are hosting an outdoor event, the number of people who can attend is still limited. 

Health and safety are crucial, and though these limitations may be annoying, they are essential to ensuring your event is as safe as possible. 

One of the benefits of hosting a hybrid event is that it allows you to break through these limitations, as there isn’t a limit on how many people can attend virtually. 

Not only does this create an opportunity to make more money, but it provides an opportunity to expand your reach and engage with more potential clients. 

Reduced environmental impact. 

One huge benefit of hosting a hybrid event is the reduced environmental impact. 

As a society, we are becoming much more aware of our impact on our planet, so providing a carbon-neutral way to attend the event may appeal to many people. 

Anyone worried about their carbon footprint can attend virtually with a hybrid event, which means that you offer an inclusive option for your customers. 

Insight into engagement metrics

Hosting a hybrid event can increase your audience engagement and give you a better insight into your engagement metrics. 

When you are hosting an event in person,  you can only really judge the success based on the crowd’s reaction and reviews after the fact.

Let’s be honest; nobody will walk up to an event runner and tell them they didn’t enjoy the event so in-person research can be inaccurate. 

With your virtual attendees, you can gather valuable data, such as the number of people who attended virtually and dipped in and out of the event. You can use this data to plan your next event, as you will be more aware of what works and what doesn’t. 

Access to more speakers and performers

With an in-person event, unless you are willing to cover travel, your entertainment can be limited to people who are willing to travel to your location. 

This puts many unnecessary limitations on your event’s potential, and you may have to settle for acts or speakers that might not have been top of your list. 

People often believe that a hybrid event impacts the audience engagement, but it actually opens the door to more variety and you might be able to book that one person you’ve always wanted to speak at your event. Having the right speakers or guests can bring new energy to your event. 

Having the right public figure or influencer at your event can influence its success, so getting them involved in your event, thanks to its hybrid nature, can be really beneficial. 

Examples of Hybrid Events

Hybrid events have existed for years; they were just not recognised as such. Here are a few examples. 

Live studio audience events. 

This type of hybrid event has been around for decades. It involves broadcasting to a broader audience while having a live studio audience with which to interact. 

You may be familiar with the phoning-in aspect, where the audience at home can call in to share their opinions about the live event. 

Hub-and-spoke events

This hybrid event type focuses on capturing broadcast-ready content by co-locating speakers in a studio and then having another host with a separate audience to engage with them and get their feelings on what’s going on.

This is an excellent option if you want your event to reach more than a local audience. It can give you a great opportunity to increase your audience reach. 

Simultaneous event

With a simultaneous event, both live and virtual audiences attend simultaneously. The event hosts create channels that facilitate interaction between the two audiences.

Advice For Hosting a Great Hybrid Event

If we have convinced you of the great potential of running a hybrid event, here are some useful tips for hosting it and ensuring its success. 

Pay attention to your at-home audience.

The worst thing you can do when hosting a hybrid event is forget the at-home audiences. It can be easy to get caught up in the moment and focus on your in-person audience, but this could impact the success of your event. 

Make sure that you assign time to address your at-home audience. This will let them know they are being considered and prioritised during the event. 

Prioritise good production. 

Remember, when hosting any hybrid event, you want your at-home audience to share the same experience as those at the event. 

One way to ensure this happens is by investing in good production. 

The first step is selecting an excellent hybrid event platform; if you have an idea of the capacity of people you are expecting at your event, this can help you determine which platform to use. 

Some platforms are unable to provide quality service for a large audience, and this could impact the success of your hybrid event, so don’t be afraid to shop around and seek recommendations. 

Remember, production matters, and you want to ensure your at-home audience gets a great show. 

Create channels of communication.

Unless your at-home audience can get involved, your event won’t be considered a hybrid event.

It is recommended that you have several forms of communication so that your at-home audience has a choice. A good channel for communication would be a chat room or breakout rooms that everyone can participate in. 

Getting Started With Your Hybrid Event.

Now that you know how to host your hybrid event, you will need a well-connected PR team to help you bring your vision to life and connect you with the right people to work with. 

If you hope to have a celebrity guest at your hybrid event, contact us today, and we can help secure the perfect person to drive up the hype.