After pivoting to a fully virtual conference last year, the Augmented World Expo (AWE) returned this year with a three-day hybrid event. The in-person component was held in Santa Clara, CA, and attracted over 3000 attendees and 200 exhibitors.
The event also included a virtual-only option, which allowed attendees to watch livestreamed Main Stage sessions and engage with a 3D virtual expo environment created by rooom. The remaining event sessions were made available to attendees on-demand the following week.
Ori Inbar, Co-Founder of AWE and Super Ventures, and Andrew Nash, CEO, Americas, of rooom, spoke to XLIVE about what went into planning this year’s event and the benefits of virtual engagement tools.
XLIVE: When and why did you decide that AWE 2021 would be a hybrid event?
Ori Inbar: Our community wants to engage with XR leaders to learn and get inspired any way they can — whether they can make it in person or only online. Our mission is to accelerate the industry and drive the adoption of XR until every single person on earth can benefit from this technology. To achieve that we must make our content accessible for people anywhere they are and however they can connect to it, so despite the complexities involved in running two types of events at once, we went all the way in because we believe in the mission. Plus, we hope that offering a glimpse of the in-person experience (through event feed, onsite video streams, etc.), encourages online attendees to try next year to make it in person — which for the foreseeable future will be superior to any online experience.
XL: What were some of the biggest challenges you faced when planning the event? How did you approach it differently than a fully in-person event?
OI: Running online and in person events is like running two events at the same time. You have to plan for dual sets of teams, dual messaging, dual sets of inquiries and two very different experiences for attendees.
XL: How did you go about sourcing and deciding on the platform you would use?
OI: After evaluating dozens of platforms, we landed on Hubilo. Besides the usual requirements from a virtual event platform to offer a robust platform for live-streaming sessions while allowing intuitive engagement between attendees, speakers, and exhibitors, our emphasis was on picking a platform that can extend the benefits of a 3-day event to the entire year. We leveraged AWE USA 2021 to launch awe.live — an always-on platform to help the XR community connect, learn and grow their businesses 365 days a year.
XL: What was the decision process behind only livestreaming certain sessions and making the rest available on demand?
OI: From our experience running a number of online events and participating in hundreds over the past 2 years, we developed a strategy based on the belief that an online event should focus on a consistent unified experience for a dedicated audience. Hence we decided to livestream one track — the main stage — which offered the most sought after talks. The content from the other 12 tracks (over 200 sessions!) is now available post event for on demand viewing and will hopefully keep attendees coming back to the platform for the talks — and stay for the smart matchmaking and building or strengthening connections with business partners and customers.
XL: How did in-person attendees utilize the awe.live platform while onsite?
OI: The session agenda, exhibitor list and floorplan, and the directory of all attendees and speakers, were the main aspects of the awe.live platform used onsite. It’s handy to know who and what’s there as you plan your day. But I was extremely pleased that onsite attendees used the app only in short bites — they saw this as a unique opportunity to be present and do things that are impossible to do online: connect on a deeper level, build trust, and let serendipitous discovery lead them to experiences they never knew they needed to have, and meeting people they never knew they needed to meet.
XL: How did the 3D rooom experience help boost engagement? Was this also used by in-person attendees?
OI: The 3D room experience of AWE was a very cool enhancement for online attendees. It was never meant to replace the online experience on awe.live but to offer a re-imagination of the AWE space as a bonus to the experience for people online, and as such it delivered!
XL: What are your top 2-3 tips for planners organizing their own hybrid events based on what you’ve learned from this event?
OI: First, make sure to dedicate two teams (with a strong shared foundation) for the two experiences, starting with planning, execution and handling real time inquiries. Second, do not overwhelm online audience with everything an in-person event offers — pick a consistent unified experience and even consider breaking it into separate experience for different types of audiences. Finally, make it extremely clear in the platform what’s accessible onsite vs. online!
XL: Do you plan to organize more hybrid events/experiences in the future?
OI: We have no choice but to serve our community in any way they can connect so will only grow our production of in person AND online events to ensure continuity of engagement by leveraging the best of each approach.
XL: What were the most important elements you [rooom] made sure to include as you created the 3D AWE world and why?
Andrew Nash: When we built the 3D AWE experience, we wanted to create a space that captured the open spirit and expansive environment of the expo itself. We made a central stage to feature the many outstanding talks and panels on offer, and a showcase where users would learn about each of the finalists for the Auggie awards. We also built a virtual exhibit hall for AWE's playground area, where virtual attendees could connect with the companies on view there. Our guiding principle in all of this was to echo the creative and innovative spark of the Augmented World Expo.
XL: How did rooom help engage virtual attendees beyond just the event platform? Are you able to share any engagement stats about how many attendees explored the virtual space, etc.?
AN: Over the three days of the event, rooom's experienceCloud logged 820 individual sessions, which indicates that a significant number of participants engaged with the platform. Our intention was to promote virtual access to live video streams of the keynote talks and the other sessions at AWE. By accomplishing that within our 3D space, we were able to connect hundreds of people to the fascinating content and inspiring ideas being exchanged at AWE.