The Hybrid Event Marketing Model
Here’s my take on Event Marketer Magazine’s webinar titled, “Mastering the Emerging Hybrid Event Model: Profitably Blending Digital and Physical Experiences.” Representatives from IBM, GPJ and Cisco discussed, “What are hybrid events?” Are the effective? Are they “green”? The answer is yes – they have all of these attributes and more. In brief, hybrid events are a holistic approach to designing events and event marketing, web-based communications, and mobility solutions. The digital space — both Web and mobile — has amplified the reach, scale, effectiveness and measurability of the traditional event marketing model. Couple that with the current state of the ecomony and the desire to green the world, and it’s no surprise the hybrid approach is becoming increasingly more popular. Hence, the virtual event.
Some advantages of producing virtual events:
• Amplify and extend event/experience investment
• Deeper personalization of event experience
• Re-purpose assets across mediums
• Better multi-channel coordination
• Deeper insight into sales cycle
• Greater measurement
• Green
Of course, with advantages come challenges:
• Confusing interactions with real engagement
• Sustain engagement, avoid the T syndrome
• Rush to adoption unbalances approach
• Lack of clear standards/frameworks
• Multi- channel integration hurdles
• Even if it’s free, it’s expensive
• Maturing technology
• New to audiences
• ROI?
The bottom line to virtual events is to not lose focus. Understand the audience. Remember what you do, and that voice and content are keys to having a successful virtual or live event. Personally, I think webinars and other types of virual events are a great way to expand your reach. It’s nice to be able to participate from the comfort of your own home, however, it can get boring depending on the quality of the technology. I have been part of many different virtual learning programs and my favorite kind are when you can actually see the speaker live. It’s easier to understand what is being said and I like watching the speaker’s facial expressions and body language. Sometimes it’s hard to know whether someone is being sarcastic or sincere – virtual or not!
-Kiley Corban
