It’s no surprise that audiences are wanting to revisit live events. Human connection is significant, and there’s A level of energy that comes with in-person interactions that can’t be matched. If we’ve learned anything within the past year, there’s increasing evidence and support for keeping hybrid and virtual events within the event equation.

Why? Well, for one, with the utilization of virtual platform technology, more people can enjoy events; more specifically, more people from different countries can enjoy an equivalent event. By allowing attendees who are unable to form it to the in-person portion of an occasion to interact virtually, organizations are ready to expand their reach at a worldwide level.

Virtual and hybrid events can further be measured by the savings and impact they need across the board.

Event Budgeting

Live events are costly. Regular upfront expenses like catering, venue choice, marketing materials, décor, and entertainment, also as hidden costs just like the total time and resources needed to execute the event itself, must all be included when budgeting. Now, with COVID safety and sanitization precautions and protocols, there are even more costs to think about when planning for an in-person event – including increased staffing for registration to ensure COVID compliance, sanitation materials, and stations, an even bigger event spaces for fewer attendees to follow social distancing protocols. Although adding digital integration and virtual support can potentially cost quite in-person events, the likelihood to realize more attendees while reducing expenses for food and space rentals can level the playing field.

Environmental Impact & Carbon Footprint

From a worldwide standpoint, the best savings from hybrid and virtual events are associated with the reduction of carbon emissions. A virtual event sustainability report found that travel to and from in-person events was the primary driver of carbon emission impact for most conferences and trade shows. The negative environmental impact increases when more attendees pass by airplane to an occasion (events with a better number of local attendees resulted in lower emissions from travel). By integrating a virtual component into your in-person events, more people will have the chance to attend virtually, and potentially help to scale back your organization’s carbon footprint.

Greater Return on Investment

Hosting an occasion employing a virtual or hybrid model often means a far better return on investment – not just financially, but also digitally through analytics. Event platform software allows planners to trace and measure attendee behaviors and wishes more effectively, before, during, and after an occasion. Virtual platforms also allow you to track content trends so you can test marketing effectiveness. This creates a consequence for all future events to still evolve.

What Does it All Mean? Better Events

In-person events will never get away, nor can we want them to. But the prevalence of hybrid and virtual events in the last year has shown us another way that is rich in data, inclusive, dynamic, sustainable, and has the potential to provide bigger gains for planners and a more immersive experience for attendees. Choosing an event platform that is well-rounded a knowledgeable is vital to the success of any organization. While many new players have joined the market recently, StreamOn has been creating virtual environments for the past 10 years and knows the ins and outs of virtual and hybrid events.

It’s not a matter of whether hybrid events are here to remain – they’re. Now it’s up to industry professionals to use the knowledge gained during the pandemic to make even better events going forward now, and into the longer term.

Want to know more about our hybrid events platform? Get in touch with our event specialist for a quick demo on the platform