Event platform Glisser recently held its multi-hub hybrid event, Hybrid Events Ignited, last month with in-person components in both New York and London as well as the option to attend virtually. Glisser partnered with onsite production companies Encore in the US and etc.venues in the UK to deliver the hybrid experience.
Vanessa Lovatt, Head Evanglist at Glisser, spoke to XLIVE about how she and the team at Glisser went about planning this event and the most important lessons learned.
XLIVE: When did you decide to organize a multi-hub hybrid event and why?
Vanessa Lovatt: There were two reasons for us. First, we wanted to show the art of what is possible, for a progressive business event, in this crazy new world we are working in. Second, we needed to do this, to walk in the shoes of our customers and truly experience what they will experience — it was 100% worth it just for that!
XL: What were some of the biggest challenges you faced when planning Hybrid Events Ignited?
VL: There were three main challenges. First: Engaging both in-person and online audience was a challenge in the design phase, but by addressing this consistently throughout the design phase and considering which audience would be enjoying what at every step meant that we ultimately did a great job with this. The challenge was being strict with ourselves at every stage of the planning to make sure this truly happened — get your event design right and the engagement will follow!
Second: Production values really, really matter — which is challenging when also working to a budget. Your production company should be an extension of your team, they need to understand your goals and your hybrid event platform and then connect the two. You need them to help you push your platform to drive success, not limit it to avoid risk. For this to be possible, you need to have a clear vision of what you are trying to achieve with your hybrid event, and then you production team will help you to achieve it. You also need to really keep close to your budget as the more online speakers you have and the more connectivity between audiences you have, the more your costs can creep. We were prepared to invest in production, so keeping laser focused on the goals and matching the tech to achieving those goals kept it affordable.
Third: Synchronizing the attendee experience between online and in-person attendees was really important for us so we made sure we opted for the lowest latency broadcast options possible and hosted all slides inside the event platform for total ease of delivery to all attendees, at the same time. Technically this wasn’t challenging, but getting the slides in time was still a challenge in today’s world!
XL: Was there a team dedicated to the in-person event and another dedicated to virtual?
VL: It was a mixture…We had some team members covering both: the project leader and the marketing manager covered both. We also allocated one onsite lead for each in-person hub who was responsible for the attendees in their hub having an amazing time. And then we had two people running the event platform which was serving the content and engagement tools to every attendee, simultaneously, wherever they were sitting. These two individuals were totally tech focused and while they were physically present onsite at the event, the onsite details were not something they had to give any consideration too.
XL: How did you determine which elements would be specific to the digital audience, and vice versa?
VL: We tried to keep this simple — all of the core content was for both audience as this was a content and knowledge sharing event. However, we felt there were a few engagement tools that were best suited to each audience.
The very best example of this was before we started the live broadcast to all online and in-person attendees, we did a warm-up for the in-person attendees only. We connected the US and UK groups via the AV set up that we had specially prepared for this and got them all interacting with one another, and — crucially — our moderator told the in-person audience what to expect, and why it was important for her to engage with the cameras, as well as those in the room. This really helped our in-person audience understand the reality of being at a hybrid event and enjoy feeling part of something bigger at the moments when the moderator was really talking to the cameras.
For the online attendees we had the chance to experiment with an Augmented Reality event tool and some physical ‘move your mind’ sessions encouraging the online attendees to refresh through movement — neither of these would have worked at all for in-person attendees.
XL: How did you integrate speakers joining remotely with speakers who were in-person at each hub?
VL: This worked really well and had three key elements:
- Pre-event stage before the live event: Every session had a detailed prep call via video conference, 1-2 weeks before the event. This enabled the panelists to bond and discuss their content in detail, and it was also when they learned what to expect on the day.
- On the day, online presenters: They joined a video conferencing room and were welcomed by a member of the Glisser team. Each online speaker could see and hear every other speaker on the panel, via the video conferencing tool, wherever else they were.
- On the day, in-person presenters were sat on the stage of whichever hub they were at and they could see each of the other panelists on our ‘monitor forest’ – this was a bank of monitors, with each screen showing a different speaker. Again, this meant that each in-room speaker could see and hear every other speaker in real time.
The latency in the streaming was milliseconds, so it really didn’t negatively impact the flow of the conversation and a true panel discussion was possible.
XL: How did you enable connections between audiences?
VL: We used a photo wall as our main tool to connect all of the audiences. We had a physical photo booth for those onsite, and that fed into the same photo booth that we were using for the online attendees, which meant that all attendees fed their (often very expressive!) photos and boomerang videos into the same combined photo wall — this was a much loved and hugely appreciated part of the event.
XL: How did you go about arranging safety protocols, especially for two hubs on different continents?
VL: We had a simple onsite safety protocol for each in-person hub that we published to all registered attendees. We followed the rules and guidelines for each geographical location at the time of the event. Initially I was anxious about how to do this correctly but found that following local guidance verbatim was completely simple, and achievable.
XL: What are your top tips for planners organizing their own hybrid events based on what you’ve learned from this event?
VL: Allow more time to complete the basics than you think you will need, get your run of show together 3+ weeks before the event and ensure you and your production team have allocated ample time to rehearse — this may require production setting up sooner than you initially expect, or you may need to book longer hours in the venue to accommodate extra rehearsals.
Strongly consider using a professional moderator as engaging online attendees through a broadcast at the same time as engaging in-persona attendees is a true skill that not many chair people currently have.
Commit to both online and in-person audiences having a fantastic experience. This doesn’t need to be an identical experience, but it does need to be consistently fantastic. If you go into your hybrid event prioritizing one audience, expect the other audience to feel left out!