From hosting conferences to town halls to recurring meetings digitally, virtual events have saved many businesses from dipping down miserably. During the challenging times, it has kept many businesses connected with their remote employees and global delegates. By now organisations around the world have either hosted or at least have been a part of the events hosted in the virtual world. Well, the experience was overwhelming but what’s missing was the in-person touch that helps in fostering meaningful connections effortlessly.
The pandemic eventually started stabilising with the wave of vaccinations out there in the market, definitely a sigh of relief. With this, a new event trend has paved its way. Yes, we are talking about “ Hybrid Events”. Digital is not going anywhere but has in turn given rise to a new concept of events – a hybrid model [1].
With the consumption of vaccinations, the restrictions will soon start to ease. Attendees will start seeking deals to even attend the event in-person. To deal with the upcoming scenarios, event organisers around the world must pave a pathway by merging in-person event elements with virtual components. The coalesce of in-person and virtual events is termed as hybrid events, an extremely viable solution for business models. Undeniably, the future of the event world lies within the hybrid event model. The flexibility of the event format that enables attendees to attend either in-person or virtually has now become mainstream. An increase in enquiries for hybrid events for not just first quarter of 2021, but also throughout the year has been noted [2]. Before we start with top trends, you must check this out event survey questions.
As an event organiser, you must strive to focus on the trends that will shape the event industry post-COVID. Undergo the process to intrigue the way towards building momentum.
5 Trends for Event Organisers To Know
#1. Embrace Hybrid Events: The New Normal
Embracing hybrid event solutions is a brilliant option to upsell your event effortlessly. You all must have come across the term “hybrid” over the past few months and must be familiar with the perks it serves. The last quarter of 2020 saw an exponential rise in the number of hybrid events. The numbers and adoption of hybrid events are definitely gonna increase in the coming months. The event technology industry has pivoted this trend and almost every technology provider has made their platform suitable for hosting hybrid events.
Integrating virtual elements in the on-site physical events helps in maximising attendance, boosting engagements, and expanding your event reach with a binge of in-person touch. If you have not yet planned to go hybrid with your upcoming event, what are you waiting for? Adapt hybrid events to enhance your reach and deliver immersive experiences to both on-site and off-site attendees. To ensure a successful hybrid event, being an event organiser you must have a thorough idea of what will work online and deliver immersive virtual experiences and whatnot. By the end of the year, we are pretty sure everyone will experience the hybrid event at least once.
#2. Make Wellness The Top Priority
With the sudden shift in the event paradigm, people are accessing the events from the comfort of their homes. Health safety has become the utmost priority around the globe over the past year. As time has changed and hybrid is becoming the new normal, planners must focus on the wellness of people attending the event in-person as well as virtually. Offer breaks amid virtual sessions to avoid virtual fatigue thus enabling attendees to relax and brainstorm with fellow attendees. However, create a health safety book for your in-person attendees and circulate that plan beforehand to prospective attendees.
Ensure social distancing measures are taken care of such as touch less registrations, proper distancing in seating arrangements, controlled traffic while your in-person attendees visit an on-site event location. While tuning towards a small segment of in-person events, being an event organiser you must adopt a responsible and safe approach. Plan out hosting small sessions, roundtable discussions, product demos, and more that can be well integrated with virtual event technology. This trend will surely become stronger in the coming years with healthy food options and mental wellness activities. Also checkout these hybrid event faqs.
#3. Collect Valuable Data At Every Touchpoint
Emphasising data collection at multiple touch points helps in fostering meaningful business relationships and accelerating sales funnels. It’s better to know as much as possible about the potential attendee base to create effective event strategies and deliver impactful experiences. Optimising the data collected from attendees helps in creating an effective strategy that yields optimal results. Go beyond the bylines of getting emails, job titles, company names, phone numbers, and so on. Event organisers should take a step ahead and start collecting valuable data at every touchpoint. To ensure what content yields a better response, you must seek the attendee’s response on various content on social media and websites. The data collected will help in analysing the attendee’s behaviour that will help in tailoring the marketing strategy and campaigns accordingly.
#4. Create Compelling Content For An Event To Foster Connections
Event organisers should walk in with this trend. A content-driven strategy is sure to foster meaningful connections that are beneficial for the long run. Curating content that matches the preferences of attendees results in delivering exuberant experiences to attendees. Create compelling content right from pre-event marketing campaigns to the actual event. Networking at hybrid events needs to be the top most area of concentration to boost networking & connections.
Be it a newsletter, invitation, or profile on a keynote speaker, create content that is well thought out, personalised, and is engaging to keep hold of attendees seamlessly. Mark it, your narrative should be compelling, informative, and knowledgeable that should speak to attendees. Here are 3 ways to incorporate effective communications in hybrid events.
#5. Strategically Utilise Social Media
Spreading the word about the upcoming event is the crucial step towards event success. Event organisers should think of new ways of putting their message across potential attendees. The time demands, to think strategically and take full advantage of social media channels. Go beyond the basics of sharing links on social handles, posting links to blogs, and so on. Create a community over social media channels dedicated to your event. It helps in encouraging attendees to be a part of your upcoming event. Additionally, organisers can even curate a list of industry experts to post content on their feeds. It helps in motivating people to be a part of the event. A tailored post on a social media platform from a prominent leader in the same niche encourages people to register for the event more quickly than a generic message.
Final Word
As we are all set to enter the post covid world anytime soon integrating in-person elements in virtual events is the way forward. The above-mentioned trends focus on maximising the prospects, fostering connections, and boosting engagements at the event effortlessly. In this article, we have amalgamated the top 5 trends that event organisers must know. We hope this post gave you some insights into how to pave the pathway towards hybrid events and plan out your events in 2021 and beyond.
To know more about Dreamcast and our Custom Virtual Hybrid Event Solutions & DIY Products, you can visit our website or book a free demo.
