What To Look For In Seeking Help With Hybrid Meetings

"Every market is different based on whether they are remaining 100% virtual or moving to hybrid. As we consult clients, we ask can this be done virtually and still achieve your goals? Should it be done virtually? Or is it safe to look into in-person meetings. I know everyone wants to meet but they also want to be respectful of health and wellbeing of others. I believe with a bit more patience we’ll all be able to continue growing our virtual solutions while preparing for safe hybrid solutions."
Erin Scholes, CMP, CSEP, CMM, DES
Erin Scholes, CMP, CSEP, CMM, DES President of SD Meetings & Events, LLC
"Virtual and hybrid events do offer the ability to increase your reach to additional attendees that may not be able to attend in person. If you are able to translate this engagement to increase membership or potential new attendees, this brings a significant value for groups going forward."
Brian Stevens, CEO
Brian Stevens, CEOConferenceDirect
"The past year has given us the opportunity to understand the power hybrid meetings have to reach further with a message, and hybrid is clearly here to stay. The key to successful hybrid events will be to take care of both the in-person and remote audiences, realizing they need different things, but within the same event framework...It’s not exclusively a skillset of third-party planners...production companies like Encore assign Producers to oversee all aspects of the technology.”
Matt Harvey, VP, Virtual & Hybrid Events
Matt Harvey, VP, Virtual & Hybrid EventsEncore
"Most planners are more than capable of learning and executing hybrid meetings, but time constraints and peace of mind mean that bringing in a specialist can be appealing. Do I have the time to learn a completely new way of doing things? Do I have the bandwidth to oversee hybrid components during the event along with my other responsibilities? Am I confident I’ve learned everything well enough to avoid major hiccups during the meeting?"
Greg Kamprath, CMP
Greg Kamprath, CMP IMS, Event Staging
"There are many benefits of the new hybrid models, like improved accessibility features, expanded personalization capabilities and behavioral data collection, a baked-in virtual contingency plan...It’s a difficult transition but one that’s 100% feasible with the right experienced partners, and the willingness to roll up your sleeves and enter uncharted territories."
Daniel Stones, CMP, DES
Daniel Stones, CMP, DES Chief Community Officer, Coalesced Events
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In the spring of 2020, events that were in-person with some video recording tacked on, needed to suddenly become fully virtual. Planners scrambled to reserve virtual event platforms. Fortunately, that hysteria has died down and virtual event platforms have become ubiquitous and stable.  Now, hybrid event sourcing – professional staging, video production and the best digital platforms – may be the next step for professional and engaging events.

While it’s true that those who work for sourcing companies like HelmsBriscoe, Maritz Global Events, HPN Global, ConferenceDirect and other volume buyers such as American Express GBT or CWT Global Events may have a leg up on room block negotiation or securing physical meeting space, what’s most important today is asking whether your meeting pro has acquired the skills necessary to support hybrid meetings.

This includes evaluation of the processes that will insure a safe meeting. To their credit, most hotel chains and convention centers have greatly improved their health and safety processes and protocols, steps that would take other locations years to develop,

To help with the delivery of content, some venues have added staging to professional video services and standardized their offerings and include a virtual event platform to boot. See Hilton EventReady Hybrid Solutions as an example of a versatile hybrid event set-up created with its partner Encore.

Local knowledge is a big plus.

Since one goal of hybrid meetings is to replace less than professional video recordings done from home with more “Hollywood” type sessions, securing premium production support in the city(ies) where the recordings will take place is a top priority. Also, working with the hotels for necessary housing of staff, speakers and attendees and VIPs, and doing so safely requires someone who knows the local market. Sometimes selecting the right hotels within cities, within blocks even – can make the difference between positive and negative attendee feedback. If a hotel has a great staging, wifi and plenty of a/v support, but there are restrictions due to union’s safety concerns around Covid-19 – you should be the first one to know. 

Expect them to go the extra mile. A meeting sourcing pro will have safety top of mind, and offer creative solutions for in-person attendees. For example, one crew attending a hybrid meeting did much of the filming and in-person meetings live and together with protocols in place. When it came time to share the typical banquet dinner, they instead returned to their hotel rooms, each with room service, and got together on Zoom.

With so many moving parts going into planning a meeting or convention, especially when it’s both in person and virtual, it is impossible to foresee everything that can happen. A good sourcing professional seeks to fill in those blanks with transparency and honesty and some personal experience in vetting the site, production staff and how it interacts with the virtual platform (a “digital twin” in the best cases).