February 11, 2010 by Jeff Hurt
Are you on the fence about hybrid meetings and events? Not sure they are right for your next conference? Or perhaps you’ve decided to take the plunge and are not sure what equipment is needed or where to begin.
Here are two PowerPoint presentations delivered to GaMPI’s Meetings Exploration Conference 2010 “Emerging Strategies For Success” at the Georgia World Congress Center.
What questions do you have about hybrid meetings or events? What concerns? Do you have any additional tips about hybrid meetings to add? Share your thoughts.
Filed Under: Event Technology, Hybrid & Virtual
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This post was mentioned on Twitter by NancyIannone: RT @johnhaydon Another great post by @JeffHurt “Hybrid Meetings And Events Deliver More Value” http://bit.ly/9fYcGE – [RT please]…
Jeff, are you just thinking of hybrid events as having a split audience of virtual and in-person? Or is there value in having the same audience go through both a virtual experience and a hybrid experience. One of our customers does a series of webinars leading up to their in-person event. Their stated reason is to get everyone on the same page so that people are more prepared for the in-person stuff. But I could also see this as a way to shorten the length of the in-person meeting.
Tony: IMO, hybrid is when there is a blend of both remote and f2f attendees at the same time. I totally agree with doing a series of webinars leading up to the F2F event and think that’s a great example of extending the content and the reach of the content.
Hi Jeff, Thanks for sharing the presentations (though the second seemed to be the same as the first?) – very funny!
Meetings & Conventions also did a very good cover story on hybrid events in December (bit.ly/5vLPgw). Overall, we counsel our customers to consider the following for their hybrid events: 1) Objectives and metrics so you can properly determine the success of your hybrid event 2) Plan ahead in case of any technical issues and this is still new to many 3) Get a sense if your audience would be receptive to this 4) Make sure to have enough people staffing the event – physically and virtually. Don’t try to do both at once 5) Consider the experience for both your physical and virtual attendees and blend the experience accordingly 6) And don’t promote one brand over another – they’re both the same event brand.
Look forward to hearing what others have to say! Cece
‘@Cece Thanks for the great feedback. These are some great points and items every organizer should consider. So glad you added those.
BTW, the second PPT is the same through slide 12 and then totally different. The first 12 slides are the introduction to our F2F presentation and standard groundrules stuff. Those 12 slides go very fast in F2F event.
It was great seeing @jeffhurt presention skills in person. We had fun delivering these two sessions.
Earlier in the day, I moderated the opening G/S on the Future of the Meetings Industry. Other panelists were Gary Sain (Orlando CVB), Danielle Babilino (Wynn Las Vegas) and Geoff Freeman (USTA). Geoff lives in DC and was snowed in. Our back up plan was to skype him in…another form of Hybrid. It was extremely well received by the audience and went off without a hitch! Great day at GaMPI MEC!
Guys Excellent presentation. The data is definitely showing the value of a Hybrid Event. We ran an event this week for the American Society of Parenteral and Enteral Nutrition in our 3D VirtualU platform and we had over 80 paid registrants with a RETENTION RATE of over 93%. With those types of numbers, you can clearly see where the value of Hybriding a select number of session is very high. It’s all about the ‘End Users” experience. Thanks again for a great presentation on Hybrid Events. Jim
‘@Jeff – my bad. I scanned the first few slides and erroneously thought it was the same. Thanks for the clarification and look forward to seeing you next week at Virtual Edge. Have time to meet in person? =)
Cece
[…] events and social media technology are adding even more ways for people to receive conference content and interact on and offline providing educational […]
[…] Bottom-line: Hybrid Meetings And Events Deliver More Value […]
[…] Two great slide presentations by the “Velvet Brothers” (Jeff Hurt and Dave Lutz) defining types of hybrid events and explaining the technologies and how they work. Our favorite advice – and we’ve seen Jeff do this to great effect – is having your speakers assign the local audience a task and then speak “privately” to the remote audience. (Jeff and Dave prefer the term “remote” audience over “virtual.”) If you’re just getting started, these slide decks are really helpful. http://velvetchainsaw.com/2010/02/11/bottom-line-hybrid-meetings-and-events-deliver-more-value/ […]
Ah! So hybrid is a blend of virtual and real attendees. Great article. Now I have a new description when working on our next conference that includes a mix of online and present participants.
Fun article Jeff-
Couple of extra things which you will need for an awesome Hybrid Livestream which could be added to your list. Lighting! It is so important to have good lighting for the virtual audience to be able to see. Sound! Microphones! Sound board or sound mixer. And make everyone use the microphones or you will alienate your virtual audience. Plus if you are recording the sessions lighting and sound are so so important. Switching capabilities, and/or a good camera person! It is much more engaging if you can have a couple of cameras and someone calling the switching for the virtual audience. Also, I would be remiss if I didn’t add our company to your list of Livestream companies. Now that we have a couple of event camps which were no budget and several other corporate and association clients with an actual budgets 🙂 we have all the production solutions nailed for any size event. Great article as usual! mike
‘@Mike Of course you need good lighting and audio. wink, wink! When I wrote this post, I was assuming that the conference organizers already have addressed audio magnification and light issues. Thanks for the gentle reminder though!
Ever since the first EventCamp I get weekly calls from people on the mechanics of a good live stream. I feel like a broken record these days…..
Hybrid meeting is not a new thing – Star Trek started it! But yes, it is becoming more common because of the availability of live streams. Invest in a good internet connection and save money on flying every member in for the meeting. There are also many venues that have sprung up offering facilities just for this type of meetings, and they can also arrange any audio and visual requirements one may have, so you can just tend to the meeting and leave the rest of it to them.
‘@Jeremy “Beam me up Scotty!” Thanks for reading and commenting.
Jeff,
Thanks for the slides, this is very helpful. Without audio, or additional information, there is a need for more clearly help people past the Fear part of this– will hybrid meetings hurt my face to face meetings– any further thoughts?
‘@David Thanks for reading and commenting. The question you raise is a common one. If people think it through carefully, they will realize that a fear that people will not come to my event if I live stream some content is actually a statement is actually rooted in bias. Those with that fear are actually stating that their event experience is only as valuable as the information shared. IMO, that’s not true. People come to a conference for the experinece, not just for the information that they can often find online, for free.
Just sayin… Thanks for reading and commenting too.
Good comment. You are pointing out the educational bias that most folks in the western world bring to the meeting space– this bias is that all information comes from a single person in front, and that information alone is the goal. The social media revolution is proving that people want to “connect and relate to learn”, not just “sit and learn.” You make a very good point.
Hi, I am a student at the UK Centre of Events Management and I am in the process of writing a dissertation where my aim is to write about the value of hybrid meetings and also look at the growth and value of face to face and virtual meetings as well. I have created a questionnaire in order to get an opinion from people who are experienced in these forms of business communication. I was wondering if there is someone I can contact further to complete my questionnaire?
Thank you so much. Charlotte Bye Andersen.
Charlotte, I recommend that you check out and/or contact the http://www.virtualedgeinstitute.com They have quite a bit of industry knowledge that may be helpful to you.
‘@Dave Lutz, thanks for the tip! I will definitely contact them. I also received an email from Jeff Hurt, so I will be in touch with you two. Thanks again! Charlotte
Great article Jeff, i didn’t know thats what hybrid meant! so its a blend of virtual and real people who attend the conference. This will definitely come in handy for our next conference.
Thanks
[…] far back as 2010, leaders in the events industry saw value and flexibility in hybrid events. In this 2-part slideshow series originally published on LinkedIn, renowned event management publication Velvet Chainsaw explored […]
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