Hybrid events are here to stay

By: Mike Brown, President and CEO, M&M Productions USA

Anyone within earshot of me since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic has likely heard me extolling the benefits of hybrid events and talking about the new ways we can attract and engage audiences.

I’m not finished yet. In fact, I think that our sudden immersion into virtual events, then slowly moving back to in-person events with virtual components has taught us a lot about the amazing benefits of both – which is what we refer to as hybrid events.

Fully in-person events have been the norm for businesses and organizations for ages. There’s a great benefit in greeting each other eye-to-eye, breaking bread and sharing ideas and resources in the company of others. Not many people gave stock to changing the in-person tradition, until we were forced to due to lockdowns in early 2020.

Imagine what it was like for a team of event producers to be sitting at our kitchen tables instead of in the office or a production trailer, trying to offer help to our amazing clients who depend on events for fundraising, education, conferences, business meetings, membership, networking and so much more.

We immediately started offering fully produced virtual events. Skeptics were many! We heard that people would not attend virtual events, engagement would decrease, and people would not adopt the technology. I was so pleased when we were able to deliver full virtual events that met or exceeded our clients’ expectations and goals.

When in-person started carefully inching back, our clients saw the benefits of virtual components and most have opted to offer both – a trend that I foresee continuing even when it’s completely safe to assemble again. A few reasons for this include:

Expanded attendee base. People can join safely from anywhere and not have to travel to an event or risk exposure to others.
Increased fundraising opportunities. More people = more funds raised.
Increased vendor participation. Vendors who are on the fence about traveling to a new show or expo can offer a digital booth and still meet people and showcase their goods and services.
Analytics. Clients can now get never-before-available insight and data on virtual attendees, including engagement, time spent in the environment and more.

M&M Productions USA team members are subject matter experts for virtual and hybrid event production. Virtual components – including for in-person events – are important to drive fundraising, increase participation and gather participant data, engagement and analytics. With our personalized virtual services, we can manage, produce, script, edit, set design, stream and record your fully virtual or in-person event with a virtual component. Our exceptional full-service virtual components are intuitive for users and are a vital part of successful event production.