How to Make Your Hybrid Event More Engaging

At some point or another, most people have attended a virtual meeting that most likely consisted of video conferences with their peers on a video media platform. On the other hand, it’s probably safe to say that everyone has attended an in-person event, whether that be for business, networking, or getting together with family or friends to celebrate a birthday or other engagements. What about taking both attributes of these experiences, and putting them into one hybrid space?

Hybrid events combine both in-person and virtual aspects of a gathering while providing greater flexibility to your audience in terms of their opportunities to participate, either at the physical venue itself or remotely. This means that you can turn a live in-person event into a hybrid setting where attendees can still join and participate even though they are not physically in the building.

Given this opportunity, they would then be able to join the event through the metaverse virtual event platform accessible on every device, if you’re using MootUp. This is especially beneficial when considering the things that might get in the way of maximum attendance, such as your live event space may not have the capacity for the number of expected attendees, travel may not be accessible for some (which also doubles as a benefit in reducing emissions and allowing this to be an eco-friendly way to attend), or obligations at home keep certain individuals from being able to attend physically. By maximizing ways for your audience to join in and connect, you can host a large event from anywhere and have comfort knowing you have put up no restrictions to an incredible turnout.

When hosting a hybrid event, it is highly necessary to do more than just stream the event live or allow for one-to-one networking opportunities. With the ability to be more tech-savvy with your approach, you can expect more engagement and higher accounts of interaction than ever before. In order to create an engaging and memorable experience for your event participants, you must combine the elements of virtual and in-person experiences to ensure an engaging and immersive event experience .

At MootUp, we provide the hybrid virtual event platform you need to have your attendees dialed in to the physical event right from their seats at home. They can still participate and interact with speakers and event attendees through the virtual world, just as in-person event attendees can.With MootUp’s advanced technology, you can add 3D portals that connect the two worlds allowing. A simple example of 3D portals can be screens placed both in the digital world as well as the physical environment so both group of attendees can see each other and what’s happening at the other end. If you want to go one step further add interaction points where, again, both sets of attendees can communicate – think joining a video call together in a booth and the 3D digital version of the booth, add interaction points for both sets of audiences to vote, like ask questions and interact with each other live.

3D portals pair beautifully with gamified interactive experiences, games, polls, surveys, etc., you can add leaderboards in both worlds showing results and stats for audiences as a whole. This unifies attendees and allows them to stay involved in the event just the same. Making your hybrid events as engaging as possible ensures that your attendees derive maximum value from the investment of their time at your event.

Promoting Attendee Engagement

Help your event dominate the physical and digital space. Here are some ways to increase the engagement of your hybrid event attendees:

1. Provide High Production Quality for Virtual Attendees

Both in-person and virtual events can have technical difficulties and glitches. This is why at MootUp we continuously improve our virtual event technology. This means that attendees can rely on high production quality, regardless of their location or device. We work to ensure a smooth experience for all, whether they’re joining in from their desktop computer or smartphone.

MootUp’s metaverse platform is browser-based, which means no installs or downloads, removing all barriers to entry and allowing remote users to have confidence in their experience and enjoy their event without having to worry about commonly encountered tech issues.

Keeping your audience as engaged and attentive as possible is key. People will lose interest if they can’t follow along due to technical difficulties, not being able to hear or see properly, or any other malfunctioning that could occur. So having guides and troubleshooting options for attendees and their respective devices is essential.

2. Make Speakers Aware of Your Online Audience

Another key point is to make your event speakers aware of the audience that is watching them online. The speaker should be cognizant of the fact that they will be addressing not only the in-person group of event attendees but also those watching online behind the camera. When the speaker engages with those at home and not just in the room, it creates a more personal and inclusive environment for the virtual attendee and turns them into active participants instead of spectators.

First things first, it’s important when you are selecting a speaker to either make sure they are familiar with virtual attendees and speaking in front of an online audience if not, that they are willing to learn, in which case you will want to provide them with resources that can help them prepare.

During the event, remind the speaker of the online audience and give them tips on how to best engage with them.

Here are 4 easy steps for speakers to engage remote attendees

1. Make the speaker aware of the camera(s) placement and ask them to make eye contact with the camera, smile, and speak directly to those watching from home.
2. Speakers can acknowledge the virtual attendees by thanking them for joining the event remotely or even asking questions specifically directed at them.
3. At Q&A sessions include questions from remote audience members and have the speaker answer them.
4. Use visual materials and provide tips for online audiences on how they can see better or where the materials can be found, perhaps a 3D gallery environment with event resources. This is great for both in-person and virtual attendees.

3. Provide Opportunities to Network

With the right virtual and hybrid technology platform, you can ensure that your attendees have the same opportunities as everyone else, no matter which side of the camera they are on. This means enabling those at home and those on-site to communicate and network with exhibitors, speakers, sponsors, and other attendees all the same.

Both parties can communicate with each other. Remember the 3D portals example above?

3D portals in the physical event space allow for in-person attendees to see their virtual peers and interact as they please. Both physical and virtual attributes of this event will provide the same engagement and gamification factors for every event participant. Leaderboards displaying the results of quizzes, surveys, and games, will unify audiences further. This level of gamification and interaction is the best way to provide an immersive experience for everyone, especially where those at home can feel like they are still a highly active part of the event, thus keeping engagement levels skyrocketing for both parties.

Why not create a scavenger hunt or an escape room that pairs people from both audiences with items hidden in the virtual rooms that can be used for hints to solve riddles for the in-person participants?

And of course, in virtual reality, the sky’s or rather your imagination is the limit. You also have the chance to easily create gamified experiences directed to online audiences only. Encouraging team-work and networking to create shared experiences for attendees, allowing them to create meaningful connections and relationships.

4. Interact With Your Online Attendees

When it comes to holding a successful event, especially a hybrid one, interaction is key. Virtual audiences are usually attending from home or otherwise maybe a local café with accessible Wi-Fi. Needless to say, there are always plenty of distractions from the outside environment that could easily capture their attention if they are not fully engaged and committed to your event. This is why features like breakout rooms, virtual booths, live polls, surveys, Q&A sessions, gamified experiences, and more, that target and actively involve them, create endless opportunities for your virtual attendees to interact online with each other in a manner that mimics an in-person experience but also with the physical venue

5. Include Immersive Experiences

Immersive technologies are revolutionizing the event industry by allowing us to host immersive and interactive experiences that offer a life-like experience to remote attendees. For example, some of the MootUp features that contribute and make hosting immersive and inclusive hybrid events easier are features such as:

1. The ability to fully customize and brand 3D spaces.
2. The ability to create and upload fully designed 3D environments
3. Ability to create and upload digital twin designs of real-world venues ensuring people are not only unified using 3D portals but they can be immersed in the exact same environment.
4. Fully customizable and personalizable 3D full-body avatars that use life-like gestures, expressions and moods.
5. Interactive networking options offer attendees the ability to freely explore and interact with the environment and each other, experiencing hall-way moments or simply attending a breakout session, or taking part in activities of interest and having the chance to meet and connect with like-minded individuals, just as they would at an in-person event.
6. Gamification features and activities such as polls, surveys, live Q&A sessions, scavenger hunts, team building exercises, and more that allows guests to connect, stay active, and be involved.

This only scratches the surface of what immersive technologies have to offer and how they have aided in maximizing events to their fullest potential. Both of these act as tools that are abundantly helpful and useful in providing a one-of-a-kind experience to all attendees, no matter how they choose to attend.

Let MootUp’s metaverse event platform do the heavy lifting for you while you do what you do best, host awesome events! Whether you’re an experienced event organizer or you’re just starting out, you can rely on MootUp to easily help level up your virtual and hybrid events without the need to learn or acquire any special skills.

No matter how your audience chooses to join, your aim must be to ensure that they derive maximum value and equal opportunity to make the best of their time at your hybrid event.

For information about the hybrid virtual event platform solution we offer at MootUp, give us a call today at 347.535.0844, leave us an email at [email protected], or set up a demo.