As themeetings industry’s collective experience in digital events has grown, the conversation about hybrid events is making a U-turn — away from focusing on fears that they will siphon attendees from face-to-face events, and toward exploring the opportunities they offer to bring more attendees on site. One case in point is Cisco Live, which grew its physical
attendance by 25 percent after Cisco Systems added a vir- tual component to its annual training and networking event. According to data collected in post-event surveys con- ducted in 2009–2010, approximately one-third of virtual attendees make plans to attend Cisco Live in person after attending remotely. “Virtual events greatly extend the reach of marketing efforts,” and create a pipeline of qualified leads, said Kathleen Sulgit, Cisco’s director of corporate events. A hybrid strategy, she said, is now a key component of the company’s event-marketing mix. Sonic Foundry, based in Madison,Wis., has seen similar
results on a smaller scale at UNLEASH, a user conference for its webcasting platform. Begun in 2007, UNLEASH offered its first online pass in 2009 “as a response to the economy and requests from our attendees who were faced with travel bans and budget cuts,” said Erica St. Angel, Sonic Foundry’s vice president of marketing. Since then, St. Angel said, UNLEASH has streamed all its sessions live and made them available to both on-site and online attendees on demand. In that time, on-site attendance has increased by 69 percent, while online attendance has grown by 72 percent. “We’re not a huge event,” St. Angel said, “but the numbers we are seeing are similar across the board at other events” that the company supports with webcasting services. As fears about virtual events subside, best practices on
how to market to remote attendees in order to convert them to on-site attendees have yet to emerge. But meeting professionals at the forefront of hybrid-event marketing offer the following ideas:
Collecting data about both virtual and face-to-face attendees is an important first step, according to strategic
events consultant Lynn Randall, managing partner of Ran- dall Insights. It would be enormously helpful, for example, to know if “attendees are primarily driven to virtual [events] with a ‘sampling-before-buying’ mindset,” Randall said. “Or is there a distinct profile for that ‘sampler’ versus a person for whom scheduling conflicts or other reasons prevented them from attending physically?” Once you have that infor- mation, Randall said, you can market differently to both groups.
Once someone registers as an online attendee, St. Angel said, begin marketing to them with the same care with which you market to on-site attendees. It’s not unheard of for people to register for a paid online event, receive a confirmation email — and then never hear from the organizer again. And don’t rely solely on email to communicate with online attendees. Sonic Foundry sends its virtual participants a conference bag and t-shirt, along with a handwritten note.
A huge driver of satisfaction, according to St. Angel, is having someone in the on-site audience who serves as the voice of the remote group. Sonic Foundry always has one staff member who is physically present at the event but participating remotely. Another good practice for hybrid events is to use hosts who serve to connect the online and face-to-face audiences, and engage the remote audience during breaks.
Instead of just offering education sessions online, many hybrid events now include social events, such as recep- tions. “The bigger the window that you open for an online audience to see what is going on, and the more interaction you offer,” St. Angel said, “the better our chances that they will attend in person. For us, face-to-face will never go away.” No matter how good the online experience, she said, “you can’t stand in line next to someone as you get a cup of coffee and have that conversation that changes your entire perspective.”