It’s been a busy start to the autumn as we return to international corporate events in person and get on a plane again! With site visits taking place around the world over the past week and momentum building for 2022, I’m excited to see what the next few months bring. Most recently, I’ve been in Berlin for a hybrid event. Contingency planning and flexibility are still our watchwords, but it’s also been amazing to see how pleased people are to be back in a room together and to be able to professionally reconnect in person.
We know there is still a lot to think about for event organisers, so here are my top tips for creating a safe, enjoyable and effective hybrid event:
Be prepared – be ready to scale your event up or down, depending on the current COVID rules in the country where you’re working. Planning for different scenarios and identifying when decisions have to be made about hotel bookings and transport will help.
Tailor your content to your audience – most events will now have an in-person audience and a virtual audience. Make sure you cater to them both to maintain engagement. On our virtual event platform heddle, we were able to show different home pages to the in-person and virtual audience. The in-person audience had access to polls which they could take part in while speakers were onstage, while our virtual audience had a question-and-answer facility to accompany their sessions.
Reassure your audience – this reassurance can come through both traditional health and safety measures, and the language you use when you talk about them. Our health and safety teams provided monthly updates to the client on the COVID situation in Germany and within all the nations from where people would be travelling. This helps everyone make the best decisions on how to proceed. Combining your safety measures like mask wearing, sanitiser and deep cleaning with effective pre-event communications means everyone knows what to expect and how to get the most from the experience.
Sweat the small stuff – reassuring your attendees can come in many forms. We limited the number of physical handouts and made sure only those with event lanyards could enter the room. Scenario planning is key – what happens if someone turns up who doesn’t have proof of vaccination or a negative test? We decided to implement a system where we could send them for a COVID test, reducing the need to turn people away.
Rediscover the art of the ‘watercooler moment’ – it was wonderful to see how much the attendees and speakers enjoyed being together in the same room. Rediscovering those ad hoc conversations is an important part of ‘getting back together.’
After all the hard work, it was great to watch everyone making the most of being in the same room once again. In 2019, I might have been concerned that people were a little late back from their coffee break because they were enjoying catching up. But in 2021, I think we can make allowances.