When planning an event in a hybrid world, your virtual audience cannot be an afterthought. Engagement across all platforms is critical. This then leads to the question: How can you improve engagement between in-person and online audiences?
To help guide you, Notified and Northstar Meetings Group brought together a panel of industry experts to discuss new approaches to networking, education and collaboration.
Read on to discover the key takeaways from our webinar and learn how you can create a compelling, immersive experience for your event attendees.
Why Is Event Content So Important?
The key to improving engagement at your event comes down to a content-first mindset.
This mindset allows professionals to think about events as content that lasts beyond time and space. In current business conditions, events are without limits, and they are always on. You can now share information and insights with your audience before, during and after the live event.
A content-first mindset allows you to tell a compelling story through high-touch production delivery. As audiences consume content through multiple channels, your production values are critical. It is essential to evaluate your event technology and ensure it is suitable to deliver your program, and in turn, allow you to achieve your event goals.
How Do You Manage Audience Expectations at Your Event?
When hosting an event across digital and in-person channels, event planners must recognize each audience has different expectations.
At a hybrid event, it’s challenging to maintain the same level of engagement between live and virtual audiences. For example, if you are hosting an in-person speaker session, you cannot forget that the virtual audience is also in attendance. Our panel suggests encouraging speakers to engage with the chat feature to overcome this challenge. Additionally, having an event moderator is key to facilitating multi-channel sessions and addressing any questions.
Although virtual and in-person audiences are different, the blending of both environments creates a holistic journey for attendees.
How Can You Create Moments of Surprise and Delight?
To make your event unforgettable and unique for your attendees, you must deliver content in innovative ways and be open to change.
Event data lets you identify the highest levels of engagement at your event and determine your most compelling moment. You can gather these insights by analyzing what sessions had the most attendees, where attendees stayed the longest, and what sessions had the most questions asked. You can then revamp and reframe your strategy for delivering engaging content at future events or even in real time.
Utilizing post-event surveys, you can go directly to your audience and ask their opinion on the event, session, speakers and overall experience. Additionally, during a session, you can poll your audience to learn more about them and hear what they want to see more of at future events.
Watch Our Webinar On Demand
Thanks for reading our recap blog! To view the entire discussion and learn more about how to engage your event audiences, watch the full broadcast on demand.