The Benefits of Hybrid Meetings

It’s astonishing the speed with which new technologies have been adopted over the past year and a half. The social isolation and lockdowns that the pandemic necessitated also led to companies and institutions integrating new technological solutions into their operations. A hybrid meeting is one such solution that looks like it’s here to stay.

This isn’t to suggest that a hybrid meeting is an entirely new concept. In some form or the other, companies had been using it. But the technology for hybrid meetings was rudimentary and there was no universally accepted set of hybrid meetings best practices.

But businesses across sectors have adopted hybrid meetings in a short span. That’s because the format offers advantages on all fronts to businesses, institutions, and governments. As an organizer, these five benefits should be enough to convince you to opt for a hybrid meeting.

5 benefits of hybrid meetings

1. Higher reach and participation

By holding a hybrid meeting, you’re significantly widening access to your event. If it’s an exclusive on-site event, some individuals will be hesitant to participate. This is understandable since there are still widespread health concerns and governmental regulations.

With a hybrid event, you’re removing the either/or situation. Participants don’t have to decide between attending a live event or not. There will be more attendees who would love the flexibility.

According to a study, close to 98 percent of those who attend hybrid meetings had no plans of attending them. That shows the lure of the format.

2. Greater engagement

As the clients of Interaction have found out, the technology for hybrid meetings allows for enhanced engagement from the virtual participants. This will make sessions more lively as the panelists would get feedback from more sources. An exclusively on-site event wouldn’t be able to get such engagement or relevant inputs from the audience.

Hybrid meetings are also accessible through multiple devices. Participants will be able to attend them through laptops, tablets, or smartphones. They will be able to comment, like, share, and interact through any of these devices, which will boost the overall engagement levels. This is especially true for Q & A sessions, quizzes, and polls.

The technology for hybrid events would also enable virtual and live attendees to network with each other. These can be through dedicated virtual rooms. These will further increase their engagement. When there are easy-to-use networking solutions through technology, it will encourage more participants to use them.

3. More opportunities for sponsors

Live events limit the potential of sponsorship because there’s only a limited audience to cater to. But if the technology for hybrid meetings can enable seamless reach to both sets of audiences, you’ll be significantly amplifying the reach of your sponsors.

It also allows for more personalized content delivery for sponsors. They will also be able to reach people, especially millennials, through their preferred medium, smartphones. Sponsors will have opportunities to display their assets in virtual rooms, walls, live streams, apps, etc.

As an organizer, you’ll be able to have multiple sponsors for the same event. You can approach a locally relevant sponsor for the on-site promotions and get another brand for the virtual event.

4. Reduced costs

Among the many reasons organizations are preferring to hold hybrid meetings is the immediate cost advantages they deliver. If yours is an exclusive live event, both you and the participants will have to bear considerable costs.

It starts with travel. Attendees will have to pay for their travel and lodging. If they’re from other organizations, those companies will have to manage those. This severely limits the number of participants from abroad or even from other states.

If as an organizer, you’re taking care of their travel and lodging, you’ll save considerably by shifting your event to a hybrid meeting. You’ll also save on the catering and infrastructure costs that large venues would need.

5. Content generation

A hybrid meeting is also an effective way to add to your content library. Since all the sessions will be streamed, they will also end up getting recorded. Now you have hours of content that you can add to your marketing pipeline.

You can share clips of speeches or discussions internally or with your social media followers. You can also compile the best parts of the event and share them with the attendees. Most clients of Interaction keep using their hybrid event content months after the event.

This also gives added visibility to your sponsors. When they can reach more users long after the event, they will be more inclined to associate with you in the future.

In short

Technological solutions that deliver all-around benefits tend to stay with us. A hybrid meeting is one such idea whose time has come, as companies across categories are finding out.

Read Also:

• How To Keep Everyone Engaged During Business Meetings
• Business Leaders Meet at the Annual AUSA Meeting
• Long Meetings Could Be A Waste Of Time – Here’s How You Can Conduct Effective Meetings