We are all acutely aware of the reality that is physical distancing and the effect it has had on our events and industry.
Everyone wants to see access to events reopen. The consumers, events industry personnel, hospitality industry, we are all unanimous in our desire to return to events, live sports, concerts and festivals.
One of our project managers attended one of the first hybrid events to take place in Ireland last week. A hybrid event is a combination of a live in person audience in a venue with an online audience following a streaming live broadcast.
A hybrid event is a tradeshow, conference, unconference, seminar, workshop or other meeting that combines a “live” in-person event with a “virtual” online component.
Successful #hybrid event yesterday hosted by @EventIndIrl shows what is possible with creative minds and a can-do attitude.
Now we need to keep the momentum going to help save the jobs of our 35,000 strong #eventsindustry staff. #eventstrong pic.twitter.com/zc7Peg327x
— eventcentre.ie (@eventcentre_ie) July 30, 2020
Quickly recognising the issues and parallels that we had discussed with our Re-imagining Sport concept we feel that augmented hybrid events will be the next level of innovation that our industry and consumers want and need.
What do we mean – ‘augmented hybrid events’?
Derived from the concept of augmented virtual reality, we believe having a streaming audience who can interact with the presentation in the same manner that a live in person audience can is key to improving their experience as consumers.
Rather than just observing the event, keeping remote audiences engaged and interacting with presenters, audience and Social Media channels leads to a better event experience and reach overall.
How can this be done?
In much the same way that #IMPACT was broadcast as a live streaming event we use technology to rebroadcast that remote audience (if they choose) back into the room. The room gains from the increased audio and visual presence of the larger remote audience and the atmosphere increases exponentially.
This is a potential way forwards for many in the events & music world.
As the physical distancing and hospitality restrictions apply there are increased costs in running events. You can however offset some of those costs through selling the online experience. In fact you could have a multi-faceted approach with a sliding scale of costs similar to a real stadium – the closer you are to the action the more you generally expect to pay for your seats.
Ultimately our goal is to #amplifyyouraudience and we feel this is the next big step we all need to take.
Would love to hear your thoughts. Please do connect with us on LinkedIn and Twitter.