Why should I organize a hybrid event?
Hybrid events leverage aspects of in-person events such as keynote speakers, guest panels, and audience discussion, alongside virtual tools that offer opportunities for a wider audience, accessibility and translation, audience feedback, chat, and shareability. Hybrid events offer many benefits, including the following:
- Significantly reduced organizing costs.
- Audience convenience and participation flexibility.
- Event content that can be easily shared with greater impact.
- A greatly expanded potential audience base.
Why is retaining my international audience important?
Sustainably maintaining a larger audience is good for your brand growth and customer base. But more than that, diversity is a strength. Offering multilingual support, for example, encourages full participation from non-native speakers. Successfully reaching an international audience is critical as our world becomes ever more interconnected due to advances in technology.
Taking steps to make your content, speakers, and community-building accessible to various potential customers is a sound business principle. Companies certainly do not want to lose the levels of participation and involvement gained from digital exposure to these new audiences, and the solution to this is hybrid events.
Here are several ways you can make hybrid events more accessible to your international audience:
- If your event is primarily in-person, also hold a livestream that broadcasts to social media or your website. Have your speakers equally address those online as well as those in-person.
- If you have Q&A or panel discussions, have your audience submit questions through a mobile form so that their questions can mix with the online audience’s questions.
- Simplify your event planning by using tools that work well with both your in-person and online event platforms.
- Hire an external translator or ASL interpreter to make your in-person event more accessible. This may not be the most cost-effective option for all your content, so you can mix this strategy with automatic captioning and interpretation.
- Spf.io’s affordable accessibility and translation tools are compatible with in-person events, as well as OBS, Zoom, StreamYard, YouTube, Hopin, and other event platforms.
Be creative when imagining your event! Structure your event as if you were attending. Encourage immersive interaction and participation from your in-person and online audiences.
What’s most important is that your content is received, understood, and impactful. For more ideas and inspiration on how to host a hybrid event and retain your international audience, click here.