Hybrid Events

Frequently asked questions about hybrid events, hybrid event planning, and hybrid event design

Q. Why produce a hybrid event instead of a live event or a virtual event?

A. Event sponsors and hosting organizations widen their meeting exposure with hybrid events.

Live Webcasts create an opportunity to connect with meeting attendees who would not participate in the live meeting. Many virtual meeting attendees who could not afford to attend the live event canafford to be virtual participants. In the current economy, this creates a win/win situation for both sponsors and potential participants.

Using social media as part of the hybrid meeting further extends the impact of the live meeting and allows discussions and collaboration to occur that would not have occurred otherwise. Ultimately, the organization that sponsors the hybrid meeting achieves greater satisfaction and loyalty from both the live and virtual participants.

Q: What are some of the successful components of hybrid meetings?

A: Social media is a critical component of hybrid meetings. Currently, Cypress Media Group has identified Twitter as an especially important social media tool to develop the critical sense of community for both live and virtual meeting attendees.

When the Twitter stream is used in conjunction with live Webcasts, a connection is created between live and virtual meeting attendees. When properly executed, hybrid meeting attendees find it difficult to discern between live and virtual attendee participation because of the exchange of information and interaction between the two groups.

Q: Are there best practices to consider when planning hybrid events?

A: Cypress Media Group has observed that successful hybrid events are ones where the virtual participants are integrated with the live meeting experience. There are numerous ways to create this live/virtual audience relationship. The following are a few ideas that work well to integrate live and virtual audiences:

• Speaker acknowledgement and involvement of the virtual audience into live presentations using chat, questions and answers, and social media
• Computer kiosks that allow live and virtual attendees to communicate via e-mail, text, social media, and video
• Webcams with streaming video feeds that allow virtual attendees to both experience the live presentations and interact with attendees
• Video Walls which allow live and virtual attendees to send videos to each other
• Monitors that display activity about the event from social media networks like Facebook and Twitter

Q: What are hybrid meeting planning pitfalls to avoid?

A: Cypress Media Group has discerned several areas where problems can occur; therefore, we can work with you and event suppliers to avoid these problems.

• Lack of onsite and virtual tech support to assist attendees with everything from connection issues to how to use equipment
• Inadequate Internet bandwidth to deliver the content to users
• Slow Internet connectivity that delivers choppy content to the users
• Insufficient WiFi access and electrical charging stations for live participants
• Insufficient electrical power to meet the event's needs
• Speakers who cannot engage the virtual audience as well as they engage the live audience
• Insufficient number of support staff to assist speakers and equipment technicians with everything from relaying questions and concerns to monitoring social media postings
• Lack of virtual attendee engagement during the live audience breaks
• Insufficient and/or delayed image postings of the live event online

Q: Can you describe various hybrid event options?

A: The leading hybrid event options currently include the following:

• Streaming Video is audio and video of a live presentation streamed over the Internet in real-time.
• Bannercasts are video broadcasts in an in-banner ad using streaming media technology.
• Slidecasts are a set of slides broadcast over the Internet with audio and video synchronization. This option also allows you to upload GIFs, JPGs, PNGs, and PDFs, in addition to Powerpoint slides.
• Audiocasts are telephone-based conferences that often include a live question and answer session and sometimes include a chat or instant messaging feature.
• Backchannels allow onsite and remote event participants to communicate about the live experience. It is often done with Twitter and the use of an event hashtag.