Should You Host a Hybrid Event?

It seems like everyone is talking about hybrid events. In February, the search term reached its highest volume in the last 12 months, and held steady at this position in March. You may have been part of that volume. We certainly were.

As vaccination rates go up and infection rates go down, companies are thinking about the return to in-person events. But most are still being cautious. In an audience poll at a recent webinar about the return to in-person, almost 60% indicated they were thinking about hosting their next live or hybrid event in Q4 of 2021 or later, with almost another quarter optimistically eyeing Q3.

In the same webinar, 79% of the audience indicated that virtual events would continue to be part of their event strategy even after in-person events come back. No one, including us, was especially surprised by that—there are just too many benefits of virtual events to let them go.

These factors are playing into the rising discussion of hybrid events. But what are hybrid events? And who is doing them? We explore these questions—and provide some guidance about how to decide if you should host a hybrid event, below.

What is a hybrid event?

A hybrid event is a conference or event that combines an in-person experience and an online experience. How you combine those experiences can vary quite a bit, depending on your goals. More on that below.

Why should you consider a hybrid event?

There’s a reason why events pivoted instead of going away in 2020. Events are one of the most important tactics in the marketing toolbox. In a survey we conducted with Demand Gen Report in late 2019, 95% of B2B marketers rated events as important to their overall demand generation—with 56% calling them very important.

At that time, 54% of marketers said they expected event budgets to increase in 2020. And, while in the past, awareness typically topped the list of event goals for marketers, we saw demand-centric goals becoming more of a priority. 71% listed “driving pipeline” as their top priority for event marketing, and 63% named “engagement.”

Why is this important? It’s clear that events fulfill many important roles for B2B marketers. Last year, the business world discovered that many of these goals can be achieved successfully and more cost-effectively through virtual events. But some of them can’t. Those serendipitous conversations at the happy hour, and those relationship-building dinners require a combination of spontaneity and time that can’t truly be replicated in a Zoom meeting.

That’s where hybrid events come in.

What are the advantages and disadvantages of a hybrid event?

The biggest advantage of a hybrid event is being able to reach a broad audience digitally, while still being able to provide that premium, face-to-face experience we all love.

Hybrid events also allow you to provide an experience for those in your audience who are ready to get back to in-person events, while not alienating those who aren’t yet comfortable with the idea, including those from companies that have policies against sending their employees to events at this time.

At the same time, hybrid events add another layer of complexity to everything including experience design, content development, platform integrations, contingency planning, and analytics and reporting. Depending on your event goals, that complexity may not be worth it. And, for the foreseeable future, any event with an in-person component will involve new logistical questions such as health screening, vaccine verification, and ventilation and room capacity requirements.

What does a hybrid event look like?

Hybrid event models
For all the talk, there haven’t yet been any high-profile examples of hybrid events. In a recent article, Bizzabo co-founder and CMO Alon Alroy said that when it comes to the code for hybrid events, “No one has cracked it yet.”

Here are the hybrid event models that we are seeing our enterprise B2B customers taking:

IN-PERSON+ (OPTIMIZING FOR IN-PERSON).

These events will be more physical than digital, but more digital than before COVID. In this scenario, event planners will focus on the live audience experience but, drawing on what they’ve learned about virtual events over the last year, make some of the content available online. One way to do this might be to stream high-profile sessions, like keynotes, but make the rest of the content available to your live audience only. Advantages of this model include being able to provide a premium experience for live attendees while being able to engage a broader audience with your digital content.

VIRTUAL+ (OPTIMIZING FOR VIRTUAL).

At the other end of the spectrum, these events look a lot like today’s premium virtual events, but include select in-person components. In this case, the experiences of online and offline attendees are both prioritized but may be handled separately. For example, both audiences may come together for keynotes in the morning but then disperse into separate in-person or online tracks in the afternoon. Communication between attendee types may be limited or not supported.

The extent to which the event serves the online or in-person audience is likely to differ based on your goals and your audience’s needs. There is an exciting opportunity here to create experiences that are highly tailored. For example, you might run one or more small, in-person, regional meetings concurrently with your large virtual event. Those at the in-person event could watch live streamed headliner content in their hotel room or together in a meeting room and then enjoy in-person networking, roundtables, demos or other experiences. In general, though, we expect that these events will be about 80% virtual and 20% in-person.

FULL-ON HYBRID (OPTIMIZING FOR HYBRID).

A full hybrid event involves designing an experience that serves both in-person and online audiences equally well. Rather than planning and executing two full events, this means identifying event experiences that can either have dual components or can be easily created in both formats. For example, if one of your event goals were to create a VIP experience for select attendees, you might do this with a small catered reception for the in-person audience, and an online executive roundtable with a direct mail component, such as a food delivery gift certificate.

In addition to providing every attendee with a premium experience, a fully hybrid event will also enable online and in-person attendees to engage with each other. This means funneling at least some of the engagement opportunities through an app that in-person attendees can interact with on their device. For instance, the event app used by attendees to manage their schedule might also include networking and session Q&A tools that are integrated with a virtual event platform.

HYBRID EVENT STRATEGY.

In this scenario, event marketers will plan an event calendar that consists of a mix of virtual and in-person events. This might be a good way to ease back into in-person events with smaller, regionally-based meet-ups, such as account days/VIP experiences, while keeping your events virtual to allow for a much larger audience.