Hybrid events create the perfect bridge between the virtual and online world. From improving attendance numbers, to more detailed and measurable results, keep reading to learn the top five benefits of hybrid events.

The Future Of Hybrid Events

You may or may not already know what a Hybrid Event is. If you’re not sure, you should check out our Complete Beginners Guide To Hybrid Events blog.

Hybrid events are already very popular, and increasingly in popularity every year. You can turn your regular event into a hybrid event with the right team of professionals by your side.

By adding digital channels to your regular in-person event, you can receive a bunch of extra benefits. You don’t need virtual reality, augmented reality or any holograms to make a hybrid event.

You can make a quality hybrid event accessible technology that doesn’t require years of experience or a bunch of money.

In this blog post, we will explain the top 5 benefits of hybrid events.

Increased Attendance & Reach

Don’t be deceived into thinking your event must be only virtual, or only in person. The truth is you can mix your audience. By adding both a virtual and in person option, you are not splitting your total attendance.

However, the opposite is true. Hybrid events allow you to increase your reach and gain more attendees.

According to this study, nearly 98% of attendees at a hybrid event were not planning to attend live.

Imagine turning 98% of your attendees away because you don’t want to offer an alternative way to attend? By incorporating digital channels and an online element to your event, you can reach a new audience who either is uninterested in going to your live event or unsure of the benefits.

Another study stated that 23% of event organisers who hosted a hybrid event said more attendees participated in future events, and 65% said they saw no change in live attendance.

It’s a no brainer. Hybrid events have increased attendance and are not going anywhere.

By adding a digital channel to your event, you’re increasing your events reach and visibility dramatically.

Higher Engagement With Your Attendants

Traditional in person only events can benefit the most from this. Hybrid events allow users to attend and participate through their mobile phones and computers.

Instead of being present, and watching the event live, users who are participating with a mobile phone or computer can watch the event and simultaneously like, comment and share.

Many hybrid events have a bunch of opportunities and methods available to increase engagement such as questions and answers (Q&A’s), polls, votes and quizzes.

Better Sponsorship Opportunities

Want to hear another significant statistic? 72% of corporate sponsors are interested in participating in a hybrid event.

Hybrid events are incredibly valuable to sponsors. As mentioned above, hybrid events usually have more reach than both traditional events and online only events.

More attendees and more reach leads to more brand awareness for the sponsors.

Hybrid events also allow sponsors to spend money on digital marketing and digital graphics. Instead of printing exclusively physical marketing material that cannot be repurposed, digital content can be continuously updated and repurposed.

Also, digital marketing and sponsorships lead to more measurable metrics. That’s why 72% of event sponsors are moving their budgets in favour of hybrid events.

More Valuable Data

One of the best benefits of hybrid events comes from the access to more reliable and accurate data.

For example, at a live event, you can do a head count and estimate how many viewers participated in a session. But with hybrid events, you know the participation numbers, plus how they engaged and when they dropped out of the session.

You also gain information on your attendees interests through matchmaking data and session participation, which can help you improve your future content and events.

As mentioned above, this data is also beneficial for sponsors. Sponsors gain essential info on booth traffic and attendee engagement, helping them prove a positive return on investment.

Because of the online nature of hybrid events, you gain a lot of trackable metrics that will help you learn more about your event and improve it in the future, metrics that you simply can’t measure offline.

A hybrid event platform is essential for providing these sort of insights. Learn more about using Brella as your hybrid event platform here.

Reduce Your Environmental Impact

If there is one good thing to come out of the pandemic, it’s the greatly reduced impact of travel on the environment. This, in turn, has made clear another benefit of things like remote work, virtual events, and teleconferencing.

Face-to-face meetings are still important, and they will always have a place. However, taking your events to the virtual space as well is a great way to accommodate environmentally aware attendees and reduce your impact on the environment. Furthermore, by reducing your in-person headcount, you can reduce the need for things like catering and other disposables.

VIMAR Digital Marketing

VIMAR is a digital marketing agency based in Portlaoise, Co. Laois, Ireland. With a team of experienced and proffesional digital marketers, our agency can help you and your business raise awareness and increase sales online.