Don’t know what a Hybrid Event is? Check out this Blog Post or this Wikipedia Article.
Hybrid Events are one of the top 4 trends facing the event industry in 2021.
Virtual events were the norm in 2020, but with COVID slowly looking like it’s behind us, many event administrators are looking to re-instate physical events.
The natural segue for many at this stage of slow re-introduction to physical events is hosting a Hybrid Event. Hybrid Events can be great for allowing you to pick and choose the aspects you like from physical and virtual events.
But honestly, how do you even host a hybrid event? In this article, we lay out a set of steps you might consider taking for your first Hybrid Event.
Define your Physical Goals and Virtual Goals
The idea of a hybrid event will be confusing at first to all parties involved. This includes you but also your attendees.
That’s why it’s very important for you to delineate very clearly what you and your team’s goals are both physically and virtually.
If you don’t, you might flop back and forth between decisions, heavily confuse your attendees, and overall possibly even damage your event by “going hybrid”.
Example 1:
Physical: We want the workshop portion of our career fair to be in-person.
Virtual: We want the fair portion of our event to be virtual. Employers can save money on lodging and students can take their interviews at home.
Example 2:
Hybrid: We would prefer to hold our events physically, but are not 100% sure what the COVID situation will be when the event date(s) come.
As such, we will work with a hybrid events provider so that we have sufficient programming and capabilities regardless of what happens.
Select an Event Platform that can support your needs
Once you know your needs, you need to select an event platform that can support your needs.
Because hybrid events are a relatively new concept, you’ll want to be fairly selective, as many providers will likely not support the specific features you need.
An example platform is Eventus.io.
Eventus specializes in general event software for universities and other large institutions. Once you create your event in Eventus, you’ll have functionality that can help your event run smoothly whether it’s physical or virtual.
Let’s say you’re hosting a career fair. If your event is going to be physical, you can activate these modules:
- Event App
- Floor Plan
- Check-In
If your event changes to virtual last minute, you can change your event in the system to these modules instead:
- Event Website
- Virtual Career Fair
- Virtual Check-In
Eventus allows you to quickly switch between modules in a fast, efficient way. For example, if you need to switch from hosting an event app to an event website, you can do this in one-click and all your event app content will be recycled.
Work with Eventus.io
If you’re interested in working with Eventus.io for your next hybrid event, you can request a demo or ask any questions at our demo form link.
