Producing successful, audience-centric hybrid events

The ways in which we come together as customers, colleagues, and citizens changed dramatically over the last couple of years. First, we witnessed a shift from in-person to all-online events. Now in 2022, there is an increasing trend toward hybrid events.

More than ever, it is clear that we do still need events. But the many responses to the question of what they will look like shape our understanding of current and future trends in the industry.

At their core, the most successful events—from leadership conferences and internal company events to customer activations, brand launches, gatherings of citizens, and government meetings—is a desire to connect and participate. We believe that the best events are built around three key principles:

1. Audience-centric: We ask: What does our audience need from this event?
2. Value-focused: We build events around the value of connection through participation.
3. Sustainable: We strive to produce events in the most sustainable way possible.

Together, we call these ”connected experiences.”

Every event should be a connected experience

Events become experiences when they drive participation. This happens when an individual’s purpose aligns with that of the brand that they’re interacting with—whether as customers, employees, or potential business partners. These experiences become particularly impactful in meaningful moments of congregation that bring shared purpose to life.

That sense of playing your part towards achieving a shared purpose hasn’t gone away, even as hybrid working becomes the norm. In a world where we meet and shop online, our lives are more disjointed. But we hear from our clients that the need to come together is more important than ever. Creating opportunities to connect and network with colleagues, customers, or other businesses is now even more critical. Even in this very different world, we are still desperate to participate with the people and ideas we believe in.

Participation is, of course, a two-way dynamic. It is an interplay between the motivations, purpose, and values of two parties—the brand and the audience. The right event can create a space for interaction, an opportunity where both parties can create an experience together. But this can only happen if it is grounded on a shared set of truths, identities, and values—building blocks that are mutually beneficial to both parties. Participation requires intent and desire. Build that into your planning and it forms the basis for a set of connected experiences that an organization can continue to nourish and evolve over the months and years ahead.

It is time to deliver events more sustainably

Given the worsening climate crisis and the need to rebound from the impacts of COVID-19, organizations should consider new ways to deliver events more sustainably. In a recent article on the biggest trends of 2022, Forbes mentioned the imperative for sustainability in the top position. Businesses are challenged to manage their Scope 3 emissions, facing pressure to work more sustainably under the Paris Agreement and live up to net-zero 2050 challenges. The event industry itself recently pledged to work toward delivering net zero events.

There is also a far larger spotlight on operating virtually due to the pandemic. Many now work in a hybrid model or fully remote, reducing our carbon footprint. While many businesses know that bringing people together in person is the right thing to do from a connection perspective, it can also significantly impact carbon footprint—a serious consideration for any organization working toward a more sustainable future.

We appreciate the challenges of in-person events in the current environment. It’s why we are ISO 20121 accredited, providing us with a framework for creating sustainable events.

We put that sustainable approach at the heart of everything we do. At each stage of an event, our team of experts combines innovative thinking with practical actions to reduce, reuse, and offset—from messaging design to building production, sourcing and supply chain, travel strategies, and carbon tracking. We also use tools such as emissions calculators to support our events teams in their planning so that they can best advise clients on how to reduce the impact of any event. All of this is backed by the expertise and experience of our global network of energy experts and climate advisers—all thought leaders in climate change and sustainability.

The rise of hybrid events

Hybrid events are the most significant current trend in events, with 79% of companies expecting to host hybrid events in 2022. By combining a smaller in-person audience with a much larger online audience engaging with livestreamed content, hybrid offers opportunities for creating events that allow us to connect and participate in more sustainable ways.

The in-person element of the hybrid event is still crucial. For both B2B and B2C events, face-to-face interactions are still the best way to build certain kinds of connections, such as business networking opportunities, contact development, and relationship building among existing contacts. Many struggle to get the best results from exclusively virtual events.

As the world pivots to an online space, event creators must design and use new and different techniques to engage an online audience. In this sense, hybrid brings multiple benefits. You have people together in person, giving you the congregation moment. Beyond that, you can reach a broader audience you may not have previously engaged for reasons of time or cost. This often means that the per-head cost of putting on a hybrid event is lower. For example, where you might have previously invited 500 people to an in-person event, you can now invite 2,000.

The hybrid event we ran for the St. James's Place (SJP) Annual Company Meeting (ACM) in 2022 is a great example of the benefits of a hybrid event.

This event offered the perfect balance, allowing SJP to bring together thousands of people as a live audience to participate at The O2 in London, but also to extend their reach further with thousands more watching online.