Generating an engaged audience at a hybrid event is possible. 

There are several tactics that can be implemented to ensure audience members are actively participating. To grab your viewers’ attention, create elements of surprise, ask thought-provoking questions and leverage multimedia opportunities such as polls and surveys. Utilising these strategies is key to generating the desired level of engagement during a hybrid event.

The digital event landscape is a constantly changing space. If you don’t make an effort to engage your audience or provide an interactive experience, and don’t present yourself with the right brand voice, it’s likely that both your live as well as virtual attendees will search for better options.

It’s essential to ensure a high-standard of experience no matter what touchpoint users engage with, whether digital or physical. This means marketers must adopt an integrated mindset – combining all approaches into one cohesive channel, to provide audiences with a captivating and engaging experience every time.

In order to provide a positive experience for everyone involved in hybrid events, adopting a universal mindset is essential. With such an approach, everyone can feel welcome and valued; it helps create hospitality and embrace diversity of all kinds. This mindset involves considering the needs of various attendee groups, making sure they are taken care of no matter where they are located. It is a way to ensure that all individuals have an enjoyable time participating in events and feel appreciated for their presence.

Rather than having two distinct experiences for our virtual and physical audiences, we should have a single goal in mind: create a standardised experience across all touchpoints. That means that when designing our event strategy, we should strive to ensure everyone — both digitally and physically — has the same enjoyable experience.

To ensure a successful event, it’s important to take into account a comprehensive perception of your audience and how they interact with your brand in both virtual and on-site settings. When organising a hybrid event for example, you should reflect on the entire experience for both attendee types, such as:

• Handouts
• Resources
• Polls
• Surveys
• Questions and Answers sessions
• Networking opportunities

Ensuring Audience Engagement

Engagement is pivotal for obtaining the most success from an audience-centered strategy. Here are some tactics to ensure continued interest across all areas of your event:

Presenter Training

Presenters need to have the ability to interact with both physical and virtual audiences easily. It is not as challenging as it may seem. Presenters just need to remember to:

• Acknowledge both virtual and in-person audiences
• Describe how members of both audiences can interact with each other.
• When engaging with people in-person and those watching remotely, divide your eye contact between everyone present. This will help you ensure that you are connecting with all of your audience members.

Event Activities

Activities can be a powerful tool for marketers, increasing engagement at events and providing insight into audience behaviour and preferences. Fortunately, they don’t need to be complex; activities can range from simple games to competitions.

• Polls
• Surveys
• Resources
• Content handouts
• Show of hands

You can deploy polls and surveys during your event to engage both virtual and physical attendees. This provides the chance to identify prospects that match your ideal customer profile, improve Net Promoter Score ratings, and craft future content.

It is important to make sure that your physical and digital event activities are in sync. All participants must be presented with the same poll options, access the same resources, and have the same chances to connect with others.

It is imperative that event activities are consistent, if not the same, in both channels. Doing so will allow you to evaluate the success of your content and pinpoint leads from both channels.

Post-Event Follow-up

Once the event is over, it’s important to review the outcome and make note of any successes or areas for improvement.

Analysing data and feedback from attendees will give you an understanding of what worked well, as well as a chance to pinpoint anything that could be adjusted next time around.

This knowledge can help you plan better for future events.

Take your emails one step further and use them to ask participants what they thought, if they’d be willing to fill out a survey, or even increase your NPS.

Furthermore, these digital touchpoints can be used to understand how your content is linked and plan for future events.

Sales Outreach

Once leads have been qualified, it’s possible for sales to start having 1:1 conversations with them. To further promote engagement, you can even provide some kind of incentive.

Provide your audiences with an engaging experience no matter where they are and when. Craft compelling stories that can be shared anywhere and anytime to attract attention.

By approaching physical and virtual attendees as a unified audience, you can ensue the highest quality experience for all.

You can make sure everyone reaps the rewards from the events you create by following the advice outlined above.