While hosting a hybrid event, it gets challenging for event organizers to keep both their in-person and virtual audiences engaged. However, it’s not going to be burdensome if they adopt some best practices and new strategies for audience engagement. Especially, keeping the virtual attendees hooked is the key as the possibilities of distraction are higher when compared to the high engagement level of live events.
Here’re some of the best ideas and strategies to engage the audience during a hybrid event;
Know your audience
It is the foremost thing that you must consider while incorporating the engagement factor in the hybrid event. This way, you can understand your attendees better and prepare event content that engages both the virtual and in-person attendees. Besides, it also helps you to segment your audience for a better engagement. To know more about your attendees, you can use an event registration form with custom questions to collect the data.
Interaction is the key
One of the best ways to add engagement to your hybrid event is by allowing both your in-person and virtual attendees to interact with each other. You can encourage both your audiences to submit their questions and polls during the event based on the session topics. Apart from it, you can also offer a private chat option to allow your attendees to interact using their mobile devices. You can get these features using some best mobile event apps in the market.
Seamless live streaming
Your virtual attendees might get disengaged if they face any issues while watching the live stream of the event. Thus, it’s very important to ensure that you’re live streaming the event using the best virtual meeting platform. Some of the aspects that you should consider while choosing a meeting platform include HD quality video, engagement tools polls & surveys, device & browser compatibility, etc.
Choosing a speaker with hybrid event experience
A speaker plays a crucial role in engaging the audience in any event. But, it’s even more important when it comes to hybrid events. A speaker might have great knowledge about your event topic and hosted many in-person events in the past, but he/she would find it difficult to engage both live and virtual attendees at the same time. Thus, it’s important to choose a speaker with experience in hosting hybrid events.