Monday, March 14, 2011

Hybrid Events = ALL events!


A simple statement: As of today, all events are hybrid events, period. With the rapid emergence of social networking technologies and their equally whip-fast integration into our work lives, your event is going to be 'broadcast', with or without your involvement.

Attendees are tweeting from your keynotes, updating their status in Facebook and LinkedIn from the hallways in between sessions and checking-in on FourSquare from the social events afterwards.

And the key for you is that your attendees are communicating with a waiting audience — their co-workers, colleagues and followers are out there curious about the event, hungry for the information you have developed for your in-person audience.
If you have enough interest to host a physical event then you can be sure there is more than enough interest in a virtual component for it. Not only that, but your attendees are part of affinity groups that extend globally and these groups want to hear what you are talking about and will put in the time to hear it if given that option.

You've put in the work to create relevant content, recruit interesting speakers and design an exciting program — it would be a shame (not to mention a strategic error) not to leverage this effort online for a broader audience unable to attend but anxious to engage.

You need to capture the attention of your virtual users — virtual attendees may not get the free Frisbees or tote bags, but you can add value for your online users that they wouldn't otherwise get second-hand or even in person. Here are a number of ways to do that:

Do it Live!
Streaming one or more of your more popular/interesting keynotes or sessions brings instant excitement and credibility to the virtual component of your event. Live streaming makes your event "appointment viewing" and extends your investment in this business-critical content.

With plenty of streaming possibilities — from the DIY options like Ustream (Charlie Sheen's newest platform) to professional companies like Sonic Foundry — streaming your content has never been easier.  Your sponsors want to be associated with the cutting-edge technology being used to speak to a much wider audience than they can reach at the physical event.

Interact to Engage
Once you've acquired your audience (see the post on audience acquisition) make sure you take full advantage of your virtual vendor’s ability to engage with your audience. The best platforms — like 6Connex — will give you numerous ways to reach out and interact with your users.

In-event chat (both one-to-one and group chat, both private and public) encourages attendees to make it a social event, mirroring networking aspects that make physical events successful.

Integrating Twitter, Facebook or LinkedIn directly into the event will allow attendees to extend the tools they are using to communicate with each other in the event and outside the event. Adding these tools directly into the event will also allow your attendees to spread the news of your event by "word of mouth" without ever leaving.

Virtual Value
It is critical to the success of your virtual event that you not treat it as an afterthought. In fact, wherever possible add value in the virtual environment that isn't available in the physical.

This includes sponsoring (or finding sponsors for) treasure hunts, scoreboard games and trivia games that enhance the virtual experience.

Another way to add value to the virtual component is to bring the physical and virtual together by adding ways both audiences can interact, either with each other or with your speakers and vendors.

Tools like Poll Everywhere allow you to take the pulse of both audiences at once and display the results, real-time, in the virtual event and on screens in your exhibit hall. Bringing these audiences together increases engagement for both sides.

Staff of Life
One common complaint about virtual events is that they can feel a little lonely. There are several ways to address this, but the easiest is to staff your virtual event the same way you do your physical event.

Include staff and representatives in crucial areas throughout the environment to reach out, provide assistance and lubricate the virtual conversation. Starting a group chat or creating a moderated chat around a topic or a piece of content will bring your virtual attendees into the event and give the feeling that they are not alone.

Engaging your attendees in this way will increase their enjoyment, productivity and effectiveness.

Measure Up
When comparing the pros and cons of virtual and physical events, there is one aspect that virtual wins without much of a fight: measurement.

As with other areas of virtual marketing, promotions and training, virtual events offer unprecedented opportunities to learn about your audience. Tracking begins from the moment an individual responds to your first promotion, continues through registration and attendance and never really ends as you develop additional chances to interact with each member of your audience based on the intelligence you gain through metrics and tracking.

You will be able to determine not just the obvious (e.g. what content they are interested in, how long they are in the event, what topics held their interest), but also the less obvious: how many chats did they start, what were the peak times for attendance, to whom did they reach out and how?

The wealth of information generated in a virtual environment enables targeted follow-up that leads to much more meaningful interactions with your audience during and after your event.

One unheralded aspect of virtual tracking is the ability to view the social graph of your audience. Studying who initiates chats, who attends group chats and what content areas generate the most conversation gives you insight into how your audience wishes to interact around your content that you cannot possibly gain in a physical event where your audience is too dispersed, as well as largely unmeasured.

Summary
Your physical event is going virtual (and possibly viral) with or without you, following these tips will help you ensure that you are managing your message, reaching your audience in a meaningful way, and developing deep, actionable knowledge about potential and current customers and partners.

1 comment:

  1. Great post!

    "...it would be a shame (not to mention a strategic error) not to leverage this effort online for a broader audience unable to attend but anxious to engage."

    ReplyDelete

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