The Essential Benefits a Hybrid Event Delivers

As a renowned event agency, our clients have been reaping the benefits of hybrid events for years! The elevation this offering brings to the consumer experience is unparalleled – Alive Events are here to help you understand the full potential you can reach with this virtual capability.

As the saying goes, two is better than one; the ultimate benefit of presenting a hybrid event to your audience is that they are engaged with both VIRTUAL elements as well as PHYSICAL. An activation like this gives your brand a broad platform that interacts with the user in both the digital world as well as providing supportive physical elements. This enables incredible benefits for audience engagement, data collection & interpretation and of course the expansion in audience reach! Step into our (virtual) office…

Tell me how the benefits of a hybrid event translate to audience engagement
We thought you’d never ask – whilst there are many benefits to hosting a hybrid event, the key factor of this immersive experience is that it offers tools that keep the audience engaged for longer, as opposed to the tendency attendees have to tune in and out at any given live event or watching online. If we use hybrid conferences, for example, Alive Events are able to tailor a real-life stage or studio and present this life to the consumer.

Further to that the technological advances we’ve perfected over the last ten years allow for dynamic animation, video transitions, voiceovers for a host or MC and the whole tech crew sewing it flawlessly together behind the scenes. In addition to this incredible virtual environment the audience experiences in the comfort of their own home, they are able to use interactive elements ensuring maximum engagement to your event. For example, live Q & A capabilities to intermingle with a guest speaker, programmes like Kahootz that require the audience to participate in real-time with other event guests, by joining quizzes and games throughout the experience.

Our online interactive products made available in hybrid events like a gallery or exhibition opening, allow the audience to engage continuously by virtual “walk through” using an avatar of themselves. This occurs in real-time within the same environment as other audience members with whom they can also interact.

Another key benefit to the audience engagement a hybrid event delivers is the physical touchpoints we immerse within the experience. The Alive Team can produce branded gifts to aid the “at-home experience”, designed especially to be used while in the virtual event. Useful products like note-taking packages, branded food supplies help the user get a physical feel for the brand, while they are connecting with it virtually.

At Alive Events, we can also welcome your audience to the hybrid event environment with physical invitations prior to commencement, which is somewhat of a lost commodity in 2020. Again this builds hype and thus engagement through a physical touchpoint adding value to the over a virtual experience.

Collect data not stamps – why the benefits of data collection are enabled by a hybrid event

A hybrid event is going to provide HUGE benefits from a virtual standpoint, as the metrics are available to track in real-time. Click-throughs give us the ability to record where and how people are finding your event and measure the mediums in which they are coming from, be that website, EDM, social media or online advertising. This crucial information enables your business to hone in on what’s working for you currently, and what you can afford to leave behind. You’re welcome!

Return on Investment metrics are another vital benefit a hybrid event provides you, mainly because in-person events have lower attendance rates than on-demand viewing does (35% attendance rate compared to 65% virtual attendance, according to most industry benchmarks). Lastly, the dwell-time the attendee spends viewing your online content is an integral indicator any business can benefit from, a standard procedure if you will, for hybrid event agencies like us.

With an engaged audience participating actively in the hybrid event experience, the attendee is more likely to fill out post-event surveys or online polls (which the event planners build for you). These are another key benefit to the virtual hybrid offering that a physical event alone doesn’t quite grasp.

A hybrid event brings with it the benefit of two different users – we’re talking audience reach

Traditional events and hybrid events both benefit the attendee, but typically the engagement factor with one type of event offering only isn’t as strong. Moreover, businesses in the past tend to opt for one experience over the other, and similarly, audience engagement differs from person to person. For example, an attendee in a physical environment is quite tactile or a virtual environment for someone who’s is a visual learner.

The immersive experience of a hybrid event is so beneficial as it reaches a larger group, allowing both types of audience members to engage with the elements they are responsive to, whether it be a physical gift won during an in-event competition or a virtual reality tour of an immersive product launch! The merit of reaching double the audience scale and keeping the consumer engaged through interactive measures opens your business up to esteemed benefits from the first hybrid event they attend and beyond!