Community Building through Hybrid Events

2010 may be the year of the hybrid. Much of the discussion and Q&A at this year’s Virtual Edge Summit centered on the topic of hybrid events and how to use them to the fullest in building a vibrant community. With 2009 the Year of the Recession, and companies looking to cut costs at every turn, many experimented with 100% virtual events, forgoing any physical component in their event strategy. While the positives were clear—cost savings, better reporting metrics, and sustainable content that can be accessed over time—the idea that virtual events will eventually consume the entire physical event industry was rebuked. Speaker after speaker agreed: physical events are not going anywhere. However, they must concede a partnership with their virtual cousin. Both are here to stay and they must find a way to work together.

Technology and media companies are not only experimenting with hybrid models, but they are also debating what constitutes a community. Chip Rodgers of SAP believes it is important to include bloggers and moderators as part of that definition and that utilizing them effectively, along with social media, can make the physical aspects of events viral, extending their reach to the virtual community to a degree not possible physically. He also believes it is vital to recreate, as closely as possible, elements of the physical event online. Since events are, he believes, critical to building and sustaining communities, the industry must develop a hybrid model that works.

Oracle’s Paul Salinger points to the concept of the Event Microverse—extending the reach of the event before, during and after. This is a fundamental challenge of the hybrid model: how to take that physical event, a real-time happening with no inherent afterlife, and keep it breathing. Using virtual elements to archive content and make it accessible to those unable to attend the live event is one way to build community. Salinger cites the Oracle Open World event as a successful hybrid model which engages both live and virtual audiences by creating interaction between the two. The Oracle Partnership Network, another hybrid model, uses social network integration to facilitate that interaction.

Michael Ray of Intel believes that education is one of the best examples of a hybrid’s potential. Intel’s Channel Conference road show builds community through training, networking, classes and showcases. Intel, which produced 1 physical and 3 virtual events last year, saw enhanced community membership when the best components of each model worked successfully together. The challenge of hybrids, Ray believes, is creating virtual content as engaging as that face-to-face contact. Intel currently uses incentives like giveaways, discounts and special offers to keep their virtual audience engaged.

Community is a term that gets tossed around so often, the meaning can get lost in the storm. Leaders in the industry understand the need to not only build communities, but to define them. Objectives and goals become diffuse if not targeted properly, and having a well-defined community is an important component of any marketing strategy. And if 2010 is indeed the year of the hybrid that gives companies new and innovative ways to reach those communities.