4 Best Practices for the Virtual Experience of a Hybrid Event

As you prepare for a hybrid event, there are lots of things to consider. You may be searching for the best virtual event platform to provide your virtual audience the best experience. Or you are searching for a way to get the in-person and virtual audience to engage with one another in the most meaningful and memorable way.

One thing is definite; you want to make sure that your virtual audience isn’t left out or just left watching the in-person experience. 

We’ve compiled a list of four virtual event best practices to get you started on your digital component of your hybrid event. 

Establish event goals

First, what do you want to get out of your event? It’s critical to distinguish what is important and why. Your goals play a major role in creating, marketing and managing your event. If you don’t clearly define the purpose of your hybrid event, it will be hard to measure the ROI.

Here are a few common event goals:

• Building brand awareness
• Generation for new demand
• New product launch or demo
• Improve customer retention
  

Keep things simple

For engagement purposes, you want to incorporate livestreams, pre-recorded videos and meetings in one place for your virtual participants. Having a variety of content will keep the experience fresh and eliminate screen fatigue.

However, there is always a sense of uncertainty when it comes to using new technology. When you create your virtual space, remember to organize your content so that it is easy to navigate. Assume that your audience has never used the virtual event platform and create a short video walking through the platform to make the day of the event seamless.

When building the layout of the virtual event platform, here are a few more items to keep in mind:

• Think through the space structure to ensure it is intuitive and simple
• Communicate clearly pre-, during and post-event
• Do not overcomplicate instructions or expectations
  

Give your audience freedom

It is hard to do, but do not try to control the participants, allowing them to make the experience their own while retaining the important information you are sharing. Having said that, it is also vital that people are where they need to be at the right time—you don’t want anyone to be in an empty room. This goes back to communicating simply. Set the attendees up for success!

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Minimize changes during the event

Things happen at the last minute, it can’t be helped. It is also hard to prepare for unreliable WiFi or other technology outages. 

However, when it comes to changing the event's overall structure, we recommend not to do that—this will confuse all parties. Refer back to keeping things simple.

From experience, we find it easier and more forgiving to remove things but not to add. Additions or mid-event structure changes will confuse more people than it will help.

You’ve set the stage; now it’s time to let people experience it. Are you still looking for additional help? We hope these insights from our past customers can help ease your mind: 7 lessons from a year of virtual events and 5 unexpected benefits of virtual events.