Why Choose A Hybrid Event?
Hybrid events are becoming an increasingly attractive spin on traditional events. Outside of the benefits during the current pandemic, there is also a lot to be said about how they can enhance your event and return on investment. As we launch our own hybrid event packages, this blog will give you a bit more insight into why you should consider making your next event a hybrid event.
What’s a Hybrid Event?
Hybrid events allow people to attend an event in person AND online. This allows for greater audience numbers as additional attendees can join virtually and enjoy the same content as the physical attendees. Hybrid events allow the same interaction within an event such as Q&A, whether your watching in person or virtually.
Benefits of choosing a hybrid event
It Makes Your Event More Resilient to Covid-19
Getting the obvious point out of the way, a hybrid event helps you to navigate the restrictions of the pandemic significantly. It means you can have reduced physical capacity compliant with social distancing and safety measures without losing out on your potential audience – because you can make up for it with online attendance.
It also means you’re not losing attendees who don’t feel comfortable turning up to a physical event because they can still join online from the safety of their own home.
Lastly, your event is more resilient to cancellation because you would already have a virtual element. This means that you can quickly and easily move the physical elements online with minimal impact on the overall scope of your event.
Increased Reach & Attendance
Hybrid events allow you to increase your reach and gain more attendees in several ways. Firstly, it allows people who otherwise could not travel to your event to attend. It makes it more accessible to people with disabilities who may have had challenges attending in person. It also allows people to duck in and out at their convenience, which makes it more appealing to attend rather than just outright needing to commit for the whole event.
Additionally, there will always be people who want to come but can’t for one reason or another. This negates that problem by not only letting them attend live online but catch up with it after the fact. This latter point also means you can reach new audiences even after your event has passed by posting it online, it also gives audiences a flavour of what kind of events you run when promoting your next one.
With a hybrid event, you lower the barrier to entry for both demographics – those who want to attend but can’t, those who are unsure if it’s worth their time, and those who initially miss the event.
Higher Engagement With Your Audiences
Adding a virtual element to your live event opens up more engagement opportunities than would be possible at a strictly physical event. Virtual audiences can actively participate on their devices, from liking and sharing the stream to participating in Q&As, activities or conducting live polls.
Improved Return on Investment
Hybrid events offer an increased return on investment due to the increased reach and scalability of your event. With an online element, you’re likely getting more attendance and more views of your content. An enormous benefit comes from the data and the insights it shows.
Beyond doing simply a headcount, you know the participation numbers, plus how they engaged and when they dropped out of the session. You also gain information on your attendees’ interests through matchmaking data and session participation, which can help you improve your optimise the content of future events.
Lastly, this makes sponsorship a lot more attractive because you have tangible metrics for your sponsors and a wider platform for them to promote their business via online engagement.
How to host your hybrid event
We hope this has given you a lot to think about when planning your next event. Whether you’ve planned a hybrid event before or not, it’s easy to get started.
Here at Millennium Point, we have a hybrid event package that is both affordable and top quality. Start exploring how choosing a hybrid event can benefit you today by getting in touch with our multi-award winning events team.
Watch a Hybrid Event in Action
Get your free ticket to our own hybrid conference Talking Point: The Future of Events from 2pm – 4pm on Wednesday 26th May. This two-hour event consists of two panels that will examine what the next 12-18 months has in store for the events industry. You can join online or in-person to see how a hybrid event at Millennium Point works as well as join in a vital conversation around kickstarting the events and hospitality industry across the UK.
To reserve your ticket, or for further information, visit the dedicated page here.
Find more interesting content from Millennium Point over at our news section, or follow us for daily updates on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and LinkedIn with @MillenniumPoint. Millennium Point is a landmark public building and multi-award-winning events venue in the Eastside of Birmingham City centre. Profits from our commercial activity are invested by the Millennium Point Charitable Trust into projects, events and initiatives which support the growth of science, technology, engineering and maths (STEM) and education in the West Midlands.
