Over the past two years, there has been a shift from physical events to virtual events because of the pandemic. Now, with things opening up again, but not fully, you might find hybrid events to be a more suitable option. A hybrid event basically refers to one which takes place in a limited way at a physical venue but has online attendance as well. The best options will offer you a customizable hybrid event platform and integrations that support your event.
Hybrid events take the best of both worlds and present them in a convenient package. In addition, you can make use of feature integrations they used with physical and virtual events, and rework them for hybrid event integrations.
What are Hybrid Event Integrations?
Event integrations basically refer to features which are aimed at increasing engagement and streamlining processes. While there are specific ones for physical events and specific ones for virtual events, a combination of the two work great as hybrid integrations.
These features allow you to increase your audience engagement on both the physical and virtual platforms. In addition, they offer you added benefits such as data collection, and chat support, among others. These features can include anything from a live streamed keynote speech to exhibitor booths which cater to both the physical and virtual audiences. You just have to choose the right set of integrations for your needs, and get started with your successful hybrid event.
How Can You Avail Hybrid Integrations on vFairs?
vFairs has a wide range of integrations and features which work great with hybrid events. These features offer you solutions to all your event-related needs, from the initial registrations to post-event data analysis. This complete experience enables you to hand over the tedious tasks of event hosting to us while you can focus on your content and marketing efforts.
Furthermore, vFairs also offers a number of software integrations with other apps to provide you a large list of options. These include lead management programs, video streaming platforms, and social media walls. Such integrations allow you to be more flexible with your audience, and give them an excellent experience.
A few of these software hybrid integrations are as follows:
- HubSpot
- Walls.io
- Zoom
- Interprefy
- PayPal
- Salesforce
- Slido
- Marketo
- Oracle Eloqua
- Wordly & SyncWords
These integrations are suitable for both virtual and hybrid events, and add considerably to the visitor experience. In addition, they are quite easy to use and you can easily plug them into your events. They make your events more lively, trackable, and engaging, so you should definitely add a few of these. All you have to do is talk to your product manager or contact us to know how to utilize these hybrid integrations.
Hybrid Integrations you Should Use
There are a number of hybrid integrations which are easily available and can contribute a lot to your events. These utilize both the physical and virtual platforms to give visitors a complete experience. In addition, these make event hosting an efficient and streamlined process for you.
Therefore, you need to determine the nature of your event, and consider what integrations you should add. Usually, you’ll want to increase engagement and collect data, so center your decision around these factors. Once you know what you want, the next steps are pretty simple. Here are a few essential hybrid integrations you can start with.
1. Registration Forms
The registration process is where you need to focus in the build-up to your event. You need to know how many people are coming to your event, and also gather their data. Online registration forms are the best way to tackle both physical and virtual audiences. Just make sure you add a category in the form which asks the audience to confirm which avenue they’ll be using.
These forms not only let you confirm your registrations, but also let you collect valuable information about these demographics. This lets you work on your marketing strategy and even share this data with your sponsors. Such information is extremely valuable these days, and registration forms are a great way to gather it.
2. Live Streaming
When you have a hybrid event, you need to consider both your physical and virtual presence. In addition, you want to make it an equitable experience for both kinds of audiences. Live streaming your physical event sessions can really help you reach both platforms equitably.
This way, you can share presentations, seminars, demos, and panel discussions online as they occur. You can even open up the floor for questions and discussions from both kinds of visitors as well.
3. Social Media Walls
Your audience will love it if you give them a chance to be featured in your event. Social media walls are an excellent way to do this. Using a Walls.io integration, you can create a huge wall in your event lobby showcasing your audience’s posts about the event.
Both physical and virtual attendees can participate in this social media sharing, which will also boost the hype and engagement around your event. Make sure you advertise this feature and create a social media hashtag for your event to get the ball rolling.
4. Chat Rooms & Lounges
You need to give your visitors spaces where they can discuss the event with each other. In addition, many people attend such events for networking opportunities. Therefore, you should open up chat rooms for both your physical and virtual participants. This will enable everyone to interact, regardless of geographical location.
Furthermore, you can even encourage conversations and feedback about the event if you moderate these rooms properly. You should also make sure your physical and virtual attendees have some way to communicate with each other, so that the hybrid event’s atmosphere is as interactive and engaging as possible.
5. Data Reporting
This is one of the most useful hybrid integrations you’ll find in your arsenal. Data is a major asset these days in every field, and companies clamor to get the sort of data you’d gather from an event. When you utilize a hybrid approach, you can easily track registrations, attendance, audience behavior, and visitor engagement. These metrics, along with the information you collect during registrations, are a goldmine.
You can use this incisive reporting to guide your future marketing efforts, and target your campaigns. In addition, your sponsors or partners can also benefit from this data, and may even be willing to pay you for it.
6. Gamification
The key to a successful event is keeping your audience engaged. You need to encourage them and push them to interact with various elements of your event. If you host a simple, straitlaced event, they may just attend a few talks and leave. Therefore, you should keep their interest and prevent them from leaving.
Gamification can help you achieve this goal and also make your event more memorable. You can add features such as scavenger hunts and leaderboards to incentivize visitor engagement. Offer exciting prizes for people who get the most points in such activities, so that your audience ramps up its participation.
7. Q&A Sessions
At the end of every seminar or discussion, there is usually a question and answer session. While it may seem like a purely physical aspect, you can easily include your virtual audience in this segment as well. As you live stream the event, you should open up the comment section for questions from your virtual audience.
You can even host dedicated Q&A sessions with your guests and visitors so that more audience queries can be answered. This will pull more people towards the event, as they will feel you are offering them a valuable opportunity.
8. Polls
Carrying on this theme of audience engagement and data collection, polls are an excellent feature you can add. These hybrid integrations enable both your audiences to answer surveys and polls on their smartphones. Therefore, you can turn this into a fun activity and pose questions which are relevant to your marketing purposes as well.
You can even encourage people to use this feature by allocating points in your gamification strategy. Additionally, you should include these polls and surveys on your social media pages, so that even more of your audience can access them easily. Use the data you collect to get deeper insights into your audience and orient your organization accordingly.
The Key Takeaways from Hybrid Integrations
To sum up, your ideal hybrid integrations should involve both your virtual and physical participants in an equitable manner. Therefore, you’ll have to include and market these features in an effective manner. The best way to do this is utilize all your mediums and track all the data you gather for future reference.
When planning a hybrid event, you’ll need to keep a lot of considerations in mind. Let vFairs take the hard work out of your hands and establish your reputation as the best event host in your industry.
