Choose Your Words with Care it’s a Hybrid Event

What’s in a name? Really why do some words strike fear in the heart of many before anything else is said?

Let’s take insurance as an example. Mention the word insurance and in my experience many people will run for the hills. It either sounds complicated, boring or too much trouble. Again this is my experience but believe me I have spoken to a number of people over the years and I am yet to have an ‘insurance – brilliant’ reaction.

Mention the word creative or inspiring and I believe we have a different set of emotions being triggered. Again in my experience, I have known people become excited by these words.

So if the power of words has such an impact are we in the events industry in danger of putting the wrong words in front of our clients/audience members etc when we describe our hybrid events? Does the expression ‘hybrid event’ mean pain or pleasure for people hearing the term?

For people inside the ‘events industry’ the term ‘hybrid event’ may be completely common and known to all. But outside of the ‘events industry’ does it have a meaning which really demonstrates what a hybrid event can help achieve for a business?  Could the term actually be preventing event planners from obtaining more work from clients?

Even in the ‘events industry’ there are differences between event professionals as to what a ‘hybrid event’ is and we could spend a huge amount of time debating the definition (for someone to come along later and change it all again anyway).

But I think as long as you (the event planner) are clear on what your ‘hybrid’ event will deliver to your  particular client and the subsequent business benefits that will result then that is effort better spent than spending lots of time and energy arguing about the actual definition.

At the moment, my experience is that many people are still cautious when it comes to hybrid events so we all have some work to do to ensure that the term ‘hybrid events’ sets the excitement racing in the heart of our clients, as they immediately are able to see the business benefits that will follow.

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Hybrid Event Centre 

Hybrid Event Planning on Planet Planit 

Scheduling Your Hybrid Event Success

The timing and scheduling of your event is always an important consideration when planning any event but producing a hybrid event makes those considerations even more crucial to your success.

If one of your objectives of your hybrid event is to connect people in different locations in the same country then the timing and scheduling choices may not be too much of an issue. Having said that, with countries that are vast in size e.g. the USA/Russia then there are still factors you will need to address.

Let’s take as our example, the USA where there are different time zones and where people on the East Coast (New York) will be awake and working, hours before the folks in Los Angeles (West Coast) are even thinking of having breakfast.  Deciding where to schedule your speakers to provide the best experience for your audiences provides your first set of decisions in your programme planning.

And if your hybrid event is going to cover different countries across various parts of the globe then the issue of programme planning has just become that much more complex.

Yes, it is more complex but ultimately you will make your decision(s) according to the objectives of the event. In the end, every decision you make as an event planner always returns the basic question of the event objectives.

Understanding who your audiences (onsite and online) are and where they will be in the world to listen and participate will start to lead you to making those decisions on the scheduling of your programme.

If your hybrid event is being driven from the UK to a largely European audience then the time challenge is really not that big an issue as contrasted to perhaps having an event from Australia involving remote speakers and audience from the UK (as usually there is a 12 hour difference between these two areas). You can of course with some careful planning produce a very successful hybrid event between the UK and Australia if that is your goal.

Scheduling will always remain a crucial factor in the success of your hybrid event and keeping to time is more important than ever especially as you have two audiences to consider.

Related Posts and Resources

Hybrid Event Centre 

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Priority Choices and Attendee Connectivity

In a previous post – (Lack of Connectivity means fail) I put forward the argument that event planners have to consider whether their delegates will be able to be connected to their various devices whilst at the event? Many event planners will confirm that they have arranged sufficient bandwidth to allow their delegates to be connected but I wonder if that goes far enough?

Mike Clanton of My Meeting Professional is a man on a mission regarding what he terms ‘network design’ at events. Having worked with Mike on a number of occasions I know that he has a great message. Simply put, having enough bandwidth at your event for your ‘attendee’s connectivity’ is not enough.  Event planners should now be considering how their network is designed to make the most of the bandwidth at their disposal.

Let’s start by exploring the idea of the network design with a simple thought of who is to be served first? Yes, you (the event planner) have arranged the bandwidth that will take account of all your attendees and their devices and that is a great start but how will you determine who is more important to be connected?

You could say that everyone is important and of course they are but I think you have to make priority choices.

For example, if you have the press at your event, and VIPs, a set of key speakers and major contributing sponsors, do you put them in the same category as everyone else when it comes to accessing the bandwidth? Well you could but it could lead to issues for you. For example, if a press reporter wasn’t able to make a connection (because other attendees were using the bandwidth) to send their report out on line swiftly and easily that could be a problem. This is where the issue of ‘network design’ comes in as it enables you to arrange your attendee connectivity in whatever priority order of attendees you like to suit your event.

As the event planner, it’s important that you have sufficient bandwidth for your ‘attendee/delegate connectivity’ and then your next consideration is who will you serve first? Begin making your priority choices to create your network design.

Related Posts and Resources 

Hybrid Event Planning on Planet Planit 

Hybrid Event Centre