Hybrid events might be the best of both worlds, but they come with their own set of challenges. As a hybrid event host or organizer, you probably have no idea where to start planning your event. Well, you aren’t the only one with this problem.
If you don’t know where to start, you probably won’t know to ask the right questions either. So, we bring to you a set of the top questions that you should ask your Project Manager at the very start of planning your hybrid event.
Whether you are a seasoned hybrid event organizer or it is your first time, these questions are most likely to help you plan better.
Question 1: How Can a Hybrid Event Help Me?
You shouldn’t fear starting with the basics if you are in the initial phases of your plan. Many event organizers believe that hybrid events might be the future of any and all events because of their numerous advantages. They offer the best of both worlds with a global reach through a virtual audience and an in-person social experience. Here are some of the top benefits of hybrid events:
1: Extended Reach and Surface Area
Hybrid events might be the best for you if you want to extend your reach. They can bring your event to the next level by opening it up to a global audience. The attendees who cannot reach the venue due to geographical or logistical reasons can tune in virtually. Moreover, they can be a great way to increase the surface area for your events. This means that you can offer more space to exhibitors, vendors, and sponsors to showcase their products and services.
2: Reduced Travel Cost
Arranging an in-person event can cost a lot more than a hybrid event as you save up on immense travel costs. Most of your audience doesn’t even need to travel and can tune in from their homes so you also save on logistics and accommodation costs.
3: Eco-Friendly
If your attendees travel less, it directly translates into a lower carbon footprint. The vFairs event platform also has a Carbon Emissions Calculator that shows attendees how much carbon dioxide they have reduced by choosing a hybrid or virtual event.
4: Reporting and Analytics
In-person events are great for human interactions but it can be very difficult to get analytics and report stats on attendees and exhibitors. Hybrid event platforms can help you with live event analytics, user journeys, data sorting and handling, etc.
Question 2: How Can I Stream Physical Sessions on the Virtual Web Platform?
One of the biggest concerns for many hybrid event organizers is streaming the on-site content to the virtual platform. To understand how to do this, you should also understand what your options are. There can be two different types of hybrid event streaming options:
- Parallel Hybrid Events
- Sequential Hybrid Events
If you want the virtual part of your hybrid event to happen at the same time as your in-person event activities, you can opt for parallel hybrid events. However, if you want to stream the in-person event activities online at a later platform, you can opt for sequential hybrid events.
Streaming live and semi-live webinars on the vFairs event platform is a simple process. Your project manager can help you set it up for your virtual attendees. They will set up a meeting with your AV team to sort all this out before the event happens. The PM will share RTMP URLs and Stream Keys from MUX with them. Then on the day of the hybrid event, your AV team can feed the stream to the virtual event platform easily.
Question 3: Can You Help With On-Site Check Ins?
One of the major challenges of arranging hybrid events for you could be managing attendees at the time of check-in. The vFairs VenueGear technology stack can help you out and make the process a lot easier. VenueGear has some great features that include:
- Customized Badge-Printing for each Attendee
- Custom Lanyard and Badge Designs
- Check-In Gear
- Event Mobile App
- Custom Landing Page Design for Ticketing, Registration, and Payments
- On-site Support
So, you don’t need to be worried about how you are going to handle in-person and virtual attendees at your next hybrid event. If you ask your Project Manager, they can chalk out all the badge-printing and check-in gear features for you.
vFairs Badge Printing App
The vFairs badge printing app is a wonderful tool to add to your hybrid event stack. You can print custom badges right on-site to help ease your check-in process. Your event attendees can easily avoid the hassle of check-ins and long queues. With just a few taps, you will be able to print badges for each attendee and exhibitor.
The badge printing app reduces the need for manual verifications, reduces the number of touchpoints, and can help you manage your time and resources well at the event.
Check-In Gear
vFairs also offers some resources to make the actual check-in process an easy experience for your attendees. The check-in gear on offer includes:
- iPad Tablets
- Tablet Stands
- Registration Laptop
Question 4: How Do Attendees Know Which App to Download?
As they’re searching, attendees can come across two vFairs apps – the Badge Printing App and the vFairs Event App. If your hybrid event has the mobile app integrated, it can cause a bit of confusion among your attendees. As an event organizer, you should tell them beforehand which app they should download.
The badge printing app is for event organizers or hosts – that’s you. You can use it at the time of checking-in at the physical venue.
The vFairs app is the one that your attendees should download. The app can help attendees keep track of the event agenda, manage their schedules, take notes, visit booths, and so much more. It is a great feature to add to your hybrid event to make the entire process much more immersive for virtual and in-person attendees.
The vFairs event app can also be a great way to bridge the gap between your virtual and in-person attendees. It can also be used as a networking tool by utilizing features like attendee search, QR contact sharing, QR scavenger hunt, live streams, etc.
Question 5: What Difference Does the Mobile Event App Make?
If you want your virtual attendees to feel like they’re a part of the in-person event, the event mobile app can be of great help. They can download the app to tune in to the in-person event on-the-go. Here are some ways that the mobile app can help make the experience more immersive for virtual attendees:
1: Check-In
The event app is a great way for your virtual event to check-in to the event on live days. All they have to do is launch the app and then sign in with their credentials.
2: On-Demand & Live Sessions
The event app can also facilitate virtual event attendees to tune in to live, semi-live, and on-demand sessions.
3: Exhibit Hall
You don’t want your virtual event attendees to feel like they are missing out on the event. You also don’t want to deprive your exhibitors to capture leads from the many virtual attendees at your event. The mobile app also has an exhibit hall where virtual attendees can visit the same booths as in-person attendees. The exhibitors can also upload brochures, videos, presentations, and other resources on their online booth for attendees to download.
4: Gamification Elements
Virtual event attendees cannot participate in the in-person interactive sessions or games. However, you can add some gamification features in the event mobile app to loop them into the fun side of your hybrid event as well. You can add fun features such as Spin the Wheel, Leaderboard, Trivia, etc.
5: Easy Contact Sharing
There are great features for in-person event attendees at your hybrid event as well and one of them is contact sharing via QR code. In-person attendees can scan QR codes from the app to share their contact cards conveniently and without contact.
6: QR Scavenger Hunt
In-person attendees can also use the mobile app for gamification tools like the QR Scavenger Hunt. Every time they find a new item on the list, they can scan the code to automatically add the points to their profile. It can make it easy for event attendees to figure out the winners and calculate points without human error.
Question 6: Can I See Who Logged In Through Web or Mobile App?
Hybrid events with vFairs offer you live event statistics and attendee metrics that set them apart from exclusively in-person events. The badge printing and event mobile app can be great tools to add if you want to see which of the registered attendees logged in at the day of the event. The web and mobile app platforms are linked to the attendee database. So, you can download PDF reports for event stats, examine each user’s journey, and tabulate attendee logins.
Conclusion
Hybrid events are all set to become the future in this post-pandemic era. Most event organizers have the same set of questions when they are starting their hybrid event planning journey. The above questions are the most frequently asked and can help most event organizers in taking the first steps.
