How Holding Hybrid Events Can Help You To Future-Proof Your Business

Hybrid events are organised events combining physical and digital participation elements. However, you might not have realised how useful it could be for your business to regularly hold hybrid events long after the pandemic has subsided. Here are several reasons why they can make an ideal long-term alternative to traditional, in-person events.

It’s Easier For A Larger Number Of People To Attend

Of course, after the COVID crisis struck but before vaccines arrived, physical venues could not be safely filled to their pre-pandemic capacities. However, it’s not just COVID-19 vaccine rollouts that have now enabled many events to attract attendees in higher numbers. The virtual aspect of hybrid events prevents them from having to impose strict limits to attendee numbers – even once the physical space has exhausted its capacity. So, your company’s events could accommodate more and more people as your company’s reputation grows.

Hybrid Events Are A Relatively Eco-Friendly Option

As many people would not need to travel to attend a hybrid event, these people can slash much of the carbon footprint the event might otherwise have generated. By partially digitising your event, you can also omit large-scale catering and, as a result, emissions associated with food waste. With fewer things you could need to hand out to attendees, you would be able to reduce paper waste as well.

There’s A Lessened Need For ‘COVID-Secure’ Hygiene Measures

Though many more people than before are now vaccinated against COVID-19, factors such as the emergence of new COVID variants could require you to keep up numerous anti-COVID measures in a physical venue – like regularly cleaning spaces and putting in place sanitation points. Naturally, though, the more ‘virtual’ your event is, the less necessary such measures could be. Indeed, these events provide a great way to start small business networking during COVID.

Virtual Attendees Can Feel As ‘Included’ As In-Person Attendees

This is because, thankfully, you could run hybrid events through using a software platform including various tools enabling you to make these events highly interactive even for their home-based attendees. You could, for example, hold regular polls and questionnaires as an event unfolds. You should, however, make sure you choose a hybrid events platform – like one from ON24 – that has this kind of functionality baked in.

Boost Audience Engagement

Of course, hybrid events can boost audience engagement to future-proof your business. Using hybrid event technology, participants can easily engage with virtual attendees, spokespeople, and other presenters throughout the course of your seminar. These revolutionary technologies allow attendees to connect with others just like they would in person. At the same time, they can further engage by writing great business content, writing comments, and asking live questions to presenters. At the same time, the can actively participate in conferences and group discussions. Certainly, higher audience engagement at virtual events will help you future-proof your business.

Powerful Sponsorship Opportunities

Next, hosting a hybrid event provides you with plenty of powerful sponsorship opportunities. Corporate sponsors love participating in virtual and hybrid events. After all, these events allow them to mitigate travel costs, and market themselves at gatherings with a much larger lead pool. In these seminars, they can communicate directly with live and virtual sponsors. At the same time, these reputable events allow them to collect reliable analytics. Of course, this will help sponsors better justify their expenses, and maximize their attendance ROI. Surely, powerful sponsorship opportunities are an inherit part of hosting hybrid events.

Hybrid Events Could Help You To Capitalise On Emerging Technologies

Examples of these technologies that were already emerging in the events space before the introduction of COVID-related social restrictions include virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR).

There are several key reasons to hold hybrid events for your company. For a start, these events are easier for a large audience of people to attend. In addition, these gatherings are a much more eco-friendly option. Therefore, they are a great solution for greening your business. This is largely in part to eliminated travel costs. At the same time, there is no need to practice COVID hygiene measures when hosting virtual seminars. Moreover, these strategies help you boost audience engagement and drive powerful sponsorship opportunities. In fact, hosting a hybrid event will also allow you to capitalize on futuristic, revolutionary technologies. Follow the points highlighted above to learn about how holding hybrid events can help you to future-proof your business.

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