The following is a guest post from Dennis Shiao, a thought leader in virtual and hybrid events. Read more about Dennis at the bottom of the page.
A hybrid event combines a face-to-face event with a “digital extension,” enabling remote attendees to experience the event online. Numerous trade associations have experimented and adopted hybrid events, including the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB), the Satellite Broadcasting & Communications Association (SBCA), the American Dental Association (ADA) and the American Institute of Architects (AIA).
If you’re a trade association that has not yet adopted hybrid events, here are five things you ought to know.
1) Hybrid Events Extend Your Reach.
For their Annual Session, the ADA determined that less than 10% of their membership can attend in person. Before they adopted hybrid events, this meant that over 90% of their members were unable to experience their annual meeting! By creating a digital extension, trade associations can extend the reach of their annual conferences to their entire member base. While remote attendees miss out on the face-to-face connections and handshakes, they still get to view sessions and interact (online) with other members.
2) Digital Extensions Drive Face-to-face Attendance.
Let’s face it: some of your association members don’t know the value of attending your annual conference. By providing a digital extension, however, you expose your event’s content (and value) to members. They’ll appreciate that and some will attend in-person next year as a result. At Convening Leaders 2012, PCMA President Susan Katz announced that 112 PCMA members were attending (in-person) in San Diego as a result of experiencing the digital extension in 2011. I like to say that hybrid events allow you to “try before you fly.”
3) Hybrid Events Allow You To Start Small.
There’s no need to “boil the ocean” in year 1. Instead, start small. Select a few sessions to stream live. Or, capture selected sessions on-site, then make them available “on demand” at a later date. Determine what works and sort through the economics. Build upon what’s working well and abandon areas that didn’t pan out.
4) Create Value for Your Sponsors.
Related to starting small, figure out ways for all of your sponsors to benefit early on. Instead of focusing on “virtual booth sponsorships” in year 1, find ways to provide all of your sponsors with exposure in the digital extension, at little to no cost. Give your sponsors a taste and whet their appetite with a savory appetizer. It’s in the “further out” years where you’ll drive significant added revenue.
5) Put Technology to Good Use.
Some digital platforms can track and administer Continuing Education (CE) credits. If attendance at your association’s annual conference includes such credits, consider enabling them within your digital extension. Additionally, digital platforms can support e-commerce transactions, which means that you can drive revenue by charging association members to attend online. Utilize technology to benefit your association and your members.
The hybrid event wave is here. If the majority of your members cannot attend your annual conference in person, then you ought to consider digital extensions. They’ll significantly extend the reach of your event. And over time, you’ll find more and more of your members attending your face-to-face event as a result!
About the Author
Dennis Shiao is Director of Product Marketing at INXPO and author of the book “Generate Sales Leads With Virtual Events.” At INXPO, Dennis is responsible for go-to-market strategy and execution, and for shaping product and platform evolution via the “voice of the customer.” Dennis has managed virtual event campaigns for Cisco, HP, Oracle and Microsoft, among others. Dennis blogs about virtual events at INXPO, and on his personal blog, “It’s All Virtual.” Dennis can be found on Twitter at @dshiao.
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