Since the outbreak of the Coronavirus outbreak, many businesses already the world are severely affected. Especially in the tourism industry where hotels, tour companies, and F&B restaurants are heavily dependent on the international tourism trade to sustain their daily income. It also impacted many companies around the world who are hosting live events and conferences that are usually planned for months or even years but need to postpone or canceled due to the government’s policy in movement control and social gathering.
Thankfully, there are still alternatives in hosting these events which is engaging companies specializing in hybrid events to live stream their video contents online. Simply by looking at the current pandemic situation which many scientists can last for more than two years due to the mutation of the COVID-19 virus. I can confidently say that hybrid or virtual events will be a new normal for business owners and individuals to host their live streaming events whether for business or personal reasons.
A simple explanation for a hybrid event is that it is a live streaming event that has both live and virtual elements in the event. The host speakers in such an event will do their presentation on the live stage but broadcast their events in real-time to their targeted audience online. This means that you will not see any people participating in the event venue other than the video crews and the host speakers.
The main benefit in hosting a hybrid event besides saving cost and resources as compared to a live event. The host speakers can easily engage with the targeted audience online and interact with them using the available online tools in their laptop to chat with them, answer Q&As or gather valuable comments or feedback on the event’s agenda. This means the event planner can host their hybrid events on a global scale and invite the global community to watch their events in real-time.
You take your live event, complete with an audience, content, and more, and you add a virtual component to it so your audience can participate and engage with your event, no matter where they are. Compare to other video content that is pre-recorded, the audience will only get satisfaction and a sense of fulfillment when they participate in this hybrid live streaming event since they can voice their opinion via feedback and get a chance to talk to the presenter in real-time during the event.
Just to get the facts straight, it is important to know that using your smartphone or laptops to stream your session for personal entertainment, sharing video contents after the live streaming event, and engaging live audience as a priority before the online audience is considered as a hybrid event.
A hybrid event is using digital communication technology to allow interaction and participation between the live and online audience. It offers a digital experience that easily caters to any audiences regardless of their nationality or beliefs in a friendly manner and most importantly, placing live and virtual audience and allow them to participate with the same level of engagement during the event.
