The healthcare industry depends on events to promote new solutions. Hybrid events allow a far better reach while also allowing for physical interaction.
In a recent survey conducted by EventMB 67% people were of the opinion that hybrid events are going to dominate the future. While the pandemic is still imposing a lot of restrictions on public gatherings, hybrid events serve as an effective solution. But 71% of the respondents wanted to execute digital events even after things get back to normal.
Hybrid events are versatile, effective, and easy to execute when the right steps are taken. If you’re excited to dip your toes in this new direction, the following guide will prove to be an adequate introduction.
What Are Hybrid Events?
As the name suggests, hybrid events take inspiration from both in-person and virtual events, and bring the best of both worlds into one complete package. They are highly engaging (owing to the physical aspect) and allow you to reach more people. A ton of companies are trying to integrate these events, and there’s a growing consensus that hybrid events are the key component when it comes to marketing moving forward.
By using techniques like live streaming, webinars, and virtual trade shows, you can get excellent feedback from participants and viewers alike.
Hybrid Events Solutions Provide Versatility
Hybrid events provide marketing teams and event planners a lot of flexibility. It becomes easier to stay in control of both the in-person and virtual aspects of your event. Thus, allowing you to provide a seamless experience for both (physical and remote) audiences. Things can get as complicated or as simple as some event planners would like.Therefore, rigorous planning and goal setting is paramount.
Going with the hybrid setting, you also get a lot more features and control over the vendors/brands present at your event. You can choose which of them get to engage the audience online, and which brands get to engage the in-person audience. Of course, this is something you will have to decide on, but you can make the experience as cohesive as you like for both platforms.
Cutting Costs
Our favorite part about hybrid events is the number of insightful statistics that you are able to view after the event. The cost/benefit analysis is a basic aspect that every marketer should be familiar with. This is where hybrid event solutions become very impressive.
With hybrid events, your attendance goes up because virtual extensions of your event allow you to get participants who can’t attend the in-person event. There are a lot of people out there who prefer to participate from the convenience of their homes.
Hybrid events also reduce costs by 20 to 30 percent. Why? Well, that’s because physical events require a good deal of resources, time, and money. Hosting a hybrid event alleviates some of this pain and lowers the cost per attendee through digital extensions. This also means that a good portion of the audience does not need to spend money on travel, which is why you might have seen smaller numbers in previous in-person-only events.
Features to Use with Your Hybrid Event Solution
As we stated earlier, hybrid events can be as technical or as simple as you’d like. vFairs offers a lot of resources to make your next hybrid event unforgettable. If you are a pharmaceutical event-planner, have a look at the must-have features to include in your hybrid event solutions:
Digital Broadcasting
Live broadcasting is easier than ever these days. Hosting a live presentation on-site and then broadcasting it to your virtual platform is very intuitive. vFairs works with your event managers and audio/video teams to provide a seamless experience both online and offline. You can also easily conduct live Q&A sessions with both live and online audiences. Of course, a moderator must be present to help you with this.
Pro Tip: Having at least two moderators will allow your event to continue seamlessly in case of any technical issue (e.g. internet disconnection). This will also allow you to distribute tasks for better management.
Digital broadcasting allows you to be interactive with your audience so that no participants feel like they were left out in any way. People can participate regardless of their location.
Hosting Remote Experts
In the healthcare industry, it is quite common for companies to bring in experts from the field. These experts can provide valuable insight and endorse the service that you are offering. However, you don’t have to pay travel costs for the experts if you want to host them remotely. vFairs can broadcast a speaker to the live and virtual audience at your event.
A moderator can also help conduct a live Q&A session between the speaker and the audience. Just another example of how versatile hybrid events can be.
Better Socializing Opportunities
A lot of people go in-person to socialize and meet with like-minded people. With that said, your digital or virtual audience does not need to have a fear of missing out. Our platform includes a live chat interface, and it just so happens to be mobile-friendly as well.
Attendees can search for people or vendors and connect with them in this way. This can happen whether the participant is joining you locally or remotely.
Poster Halls
Poster Halls allow attendees to interact with the vendors and brands at your exhibition. Researchers are able to host their posters both in an in-person poster hall and a virtual one.
You can also host Q&A sessions where attendees can ask questions that you can answer and publish, all within the poster hall. Presenters can also share downloadable documents for attendees to review later (which would be a better approach than sharing hard copies that not only get lost but cannot be shared with your remote audience).
Deeper Insights
vFairs also has a feature where you can see reports and statistics of your event. It is easy to keep track of how many people show on the virtual platform, and what activities they took part in. This allows companies to measure the effectiveness of the event. You can figure out what features work, streamline them, and improve engagement on the next event. This will allow you to have an even better ROI the next time around.
