With reduced budgets employees are, in some cases, competing with one another for company funds, making it nearly impossible for everyone that should attend conferences, and events, to do so. Those fortunate enough to get their travel expenses approved must work hard to convince management there will be a viable return on their travel investment.
Even with improved economic conditions, there remains an education void for many event professionals, with fewer travel dollars to spend. So, how do we fix this problem?
Hybrid Events May Be the Best Solution for Your Event in 2021?
In late 2019/ early 2020 hybrid events emerged as an affordable, viable alternative event solution of interest for many meeting organizers. For context, a hybrid event is one in which organizers provide customers (potential attendees) the option of remote access to all, or a portion of the conference content, utilizing some or several forms of social technology.
In 2018 several major meetings industry associations (i.e. PCMA, MPI) successfully introduced Hybrid components into their events. In fact these organizations are now featuring education sessions, at their 2019 conferences, to teach attendees about the advantages and “best practices” for use of hybrid technology.
Over the past couple of years I have participated in numerous hybrid events, either as a remote attendee, or as an organizer. On both sides of the ball I have learned a remote participant experience does not replace its face2face counterpart. However, if executed properly, in the right context, a hybrid event can serve a very functional purpose.
The Litmus Test – Why Create a Hybrid Event?
If you are wondering whether a hybrid event makes sense for your organization, then ask yourself the following questions:
- Are there customers or prospects that will most likely not be able to attend your organization’s conference due to their own financial, geographic or scheduling constraints?
- Are there potential customers you could reach, through online access, that otherwise would not be accessible?
- Are you interested in exceeding your customer’s expectations, by offering them conference access options that meet their needs, in a difficult economy?
If your answer is yes to any of these questions, then you need to strongly consider introducing hybrid components to your 2021 event.
The Hybrid events world is the new frontier of the conference business. Since the technology and processes are so new, there are not a lot of rules, and only a handful of best practices to follow, as of yet. However, the quality of these events is accelerating. It is fair to say new enhancements will bubble to the surface in 2021.
In a shaky economy, and with many quality online education alternatives available to business people, organizations can no longer rely upon their past successes with traditional conference design to attract attendees. In this social technology era, folks have more online options available to them than ever, to address their education goals.
Organizations can certainly choose to ignore these competing online education channels, at their own peril. A smarter approach may be to jump on the hybrid event “bandwagon” meeting the competition head-on.
There may be an opportunity for your organization to strengthen its relationships with customers by offering them innovative hybrid conference solutions that will meet their unique needs during this economic recovery. The payoff, for your thoughtful approach will be their extended loyalty towards your conference and organization far into the future.
