Hybrid Event Predictions in 2021
For the next few months, you'll hear the never-ending war cry that hybrid experiences are the way of the future, with all the advantages that entail. While we agree, we prefer to be careful and rational rather than following the crowd.. Everyone has reasons to believe or disprove that hybrid events are the way of the future, and while we believe they are, they are not without their challenges. Of course, the degree to which your event is hybridized would make a significant difference, as the word "hybrid events" is still a bit misleading. Some hybrid events are fraught with problems, at least in the short term. Many of these obstacles will develop into opportunities in the long run. We don't know whether people want hybrid events yet, either because they've grown accustomed to virtual events and their various advantages, or because they dislike virtual events and can't wait to meet and interact like they used to. But one thing to keep in mind is that putting together a hybrid event isn't going to be simple. As taken from https://blog.bizzabo.com/hybrid-event-takeaways-2021, some hybrid predictions that will impact the future include;
We are still left with more questions than answers, and "ordinary" is still a long way off
Some of us are looking forward to returning to live events this year, but for the majority of them, this will be a massive task. Unfortunately, live events were the first to close due to the pandemic, and would certainly be the last to completely reopen, even with many protocols in effect, possibly for several years. An on-site event is difficult to plan; there are many preparations that go into the planning and production of an event. Furthermore, there are still far too many unknowns about travel, vaccination acceptance/rollout, event rules, and, most notably, how many attendees are likely to go back on-site. It will take at least a year to “get to the end of the tunnel.” The pandemic will most certainly clear and events will resume on-site, but we won't know what the pandemic's long-term implications on the events industry will be until at least a year has passed.
For experienced event managers, sales and margins can increase
Generating income and revenues has been one of the most difficult aspects of simulated activities. For decades, the events industry's business model of charging for premium tickets, sponsorships and exhibiting opportunities had proven to be a reliable and valuable model. All of that changed with virtual events, which made charging guests, sponsors, and speakers in the same way and expecting the same profits much more difficult at first.
The good news is that over the last few months, we've seen a number of events that have dramatically altered the situation. Virtual events have become increasingly profitable for event planners who have mastered digital marketing and low-risk, repeatable, elevated event production, thanks to their lower cost.
When the time comes, hybrid events should provide even more opportunities for professional event planners to generate revenue by selling both online and offline experiences to larger groups of attendees, sponsors, and exhibitors. The best piece of advice for event planners is to put in the effort to make virtual events successful. It's achievable, this will require a diverse type of skills, and perhaps most importantly, this will ready you for a virtual-first or hybrid future.
Events can be used by remote work environments to put people together
For hybrid events and planners willing to return to in-person events, this could be a great outcome. The pandemic may have permanently altered organizational culture. Many employers and workers would almost certainly tolerate remote work models following the pandemic. This indicates that being together as a team in person would be valuable and joyous, and for the forward-thinking event planner, this could be a gold mine. Sales kickoffs and more regular company retreats, as well as training days and roadshows, can all become more common in the future. It gives you the sense that, while post-pandemic incidents can be somewhat different, the need to meet people in person will not. This could be the future of events, putting people who are regularly remote, together.
Future of Events
Hybrid is a part of a larger movement and debate about the future of events as we know them. It showed that event marketers are flexible and visionary, and that we can work together to make positive progress in the face of adversity. We won't know what will succeed until we can return to in-person experiences and experiment with hybrid approaches. The key, in my view, would be to provide the virtual audience with the same degree of live interaction and engagement as the in-person audience whenever possible.