Discover the next big thing in conferences and events! Hybrid events are taking over, but are they the new normal? We explore the exciting possibilities and challenges presented by this growing trend, including accessibility and inclusion for all attendees.

The pandemic forced event organizers to pivot towards online events, and this shift created a huge explosion of participation from a wider range of people. But now that in-person events are returning, how do you decide whether to host your event online, in-person, or as a hybrid? We'll show you how to make the right choice based on the unique needs and preferences of your audience.

Plus, we'll discuss the importance of accessibility and inclusion as a mindset, not just a tactic, to create welcoming spaces for all attendees. And we'll dive into the challenges and concerns surrounding the expenses and logistics of hosting hybrid events, and how to overcome them.

This episode is packed with insights, tips, and strategies to help you kickstart your hybrid event strategy and take your community building to the next level. Don't miss out!

Timestamps and key takeaways

0:03:10 - Online events are more accessible 

0:12:50 - Short-Term vs Long-Term Thinking

0:20:39 - Strategy First

Online events are more accessible 

Isaac Watson: If we were to dig into this a little bit deeper,  let's figure out some of the problems. that are underlying these questions, like, why, what is really happening that's causing this stuff to bubble up? And I think that  one of the things people think about hybrid events in particular is that they either misunderstand or they don't quite care enough or care deeply enough about accessibility and inclusion. I think one thing that has  become  very apparent throughout the pandemic and the shift to online  gatherings and events and whatnot, is that  the ability for anybody to connect to your event from wherever they are geographically, economically, wherever  is a massive bo to inclusion and accessibility, and we saw audiences balloon beyond what was previously possible with an in person event.

And I think that a lot of people, especially those who were organizing in person only conferences for a long time,  were blinded to the fact that it actually costs a lot of money to attend an event in person, right? It's not just about the ticket price. And we've gone through this with our clients previously when we're thinking about how do you set ticket prices and budgets and how do you adequately market an event? But it just costs a lot of money. You have to pay for airfare. If it's not in your own city. You have to pay for a hotel. You've got the meals, you've got the ticket, you've got all the other things. There's just a lot involved with it. And having an online. Destroys all of those extra expenses and makes it far more economically accessible.

Short-Term vs Long-Term Thinking

Isaac Watson: Yeah. And by contrast, not every event needs to be in person either. And I think  that's part of the risk of this line of questioning around, Oh, does it need to be Hybrid is hybrid The new normal? is that hybrid isn't the only option.

First of all, there are a lot of factors that go into deciding  whether or not that's right for you or which format is right for your audience. So that kind of segues into the other, one of the other key problems  that feeds into this line of questioning for me, which is this kind of  short term versus long term thinking process. I think it's really easy to think about  what people need right now and to not really think about how, what you are creating with your conference, how that will influence your community over the long haul, how that will influence their  ability to connect with other community members. And how  that affects your growth and your goals and things like that.

A lot of  these questions come from this shorter term mindset of okay  pandemics quote unquote over. And so now we're going back to in person and that is just  a shortsighted way of thinking about things because as we think about global audiences and networks of connected people and all of the things that the internet has provided for us over the last couple decades  there's a lot more at play from a long term perspective than just trying to figure out what to do with your conference this particular year or next year.

Strategy First

Nessa Jimenez: Strategy first. Then strategy starts with research. You have to know who you're talking to, who is part of this community, and what they care about. And then from there What we do is we design an experience that is inclusive, designed for that community. And for what their needs are. Cuz again,  if most of your audience wants to join online, then why are you insisting on doing it in person only? That does not make any sense.

Isaac Watson: By contrast  we've been working with a client  who was trying to do online stuff for a very geographically concise  group  of audience members. And they weren't doing it very effectively. And so the answer in this case was to go back in person  to be able to really fulfill  that particular event's needs.

So that to me really underscores this core importance of identifying what's right for you. Your audience and not just duplicating what you see everybody else doing or what, especially what  tech tells you that you should do. We've talked about this before,  and a lot of people continue to talk about this, but  the tech industry absolutely exploded during Covid. And then now what we're seeing is this kind of. Constriction of things where it's like, Oh yeah, an app for everything. A platform for everything.

Everybody wants to do hybrid or they all have these new solutions, but now  it's constricting and rebalancing, but I think  it's even more important now than ever  not to buy into what they're pushing as marketing for these, like hot new ways to create community  and to really focus on identifying what is right for you and your audience rather than just doing what everybody else. That they should do. And that's something we do through our event lab process. It's understanding who your audience is, figuring out what are the ways in which we can meet those goals, and how we can design an event format and create this blueprint for something that will really help you achieve that.

Transcript

00:00:13

Isaac Watson: How do you as a leader of a growing community, Truly make a conference or event that has impact, a gathering with purpose and an attendee experience that knocks their socks off.An event that leaves your audience in awe and wondering where you've been their whole life. Make It Kickass is the podcast that explores these questions by uncovering the strategies, tactics and tools that we use every day to bring our clients' conferences to life. I'm Isaac Watson, executive producer of Kickass Conferences, and we are here to help you make it kick ass.

00:00:51

Hey everyone, it's Isaac Watson here, executive producer of K House Conferences, and I am here as usual with Nessa Jimenez. Say hello, Nessa.

00:01:01

Nessa Jimenez: Hi everyone. Welcome back.

00:01:03

Isaac Watson: Nessa is our operations manager and we are back with another episode of Make it Kickass. Excited to dive into yet another common question that people ask us, which is the focus of this whole season. And today we're gonna be talking a little bit about, or maybe a lot about  hybrid events because that is of course, hot on everyone's minds. So one of the questions that we get  asked. Quite frequently, especially from people who  used to run in person events, pre-pandemic    and also from people who are considering starting something now that we've been through  this remote situation that we have been dealing with for the last couple of years, should my conference be hybrid? Are hybrid conferences the new normal? People ask us this all the time. So we wanna dig into that a little bit. And Nessa, I'm gonna turn it over to you to tell us, like when we hear that question, what do people actually mean? What are they really asking?

00:02:10

Nessa Jimenez: So when people bring that up to us, I think the number one thing they actually are asking is, that sounds super expensive and super complicated. Can't we just go back to the old way, how it used to be? Or why can't we go back to normal. Or what they want. Us to A to answer is why do we have to do it as if like an obligation, right?Why do we have to have an online option? If you could just go back to in person, like, why add this new thing on if we don't  have to? And lastly  if I do have an in person only event, what do I do now with this broader audience that I got from being online for these past couple of years? How do I  serve or address them? Because now that it's going back to in person  I dunno what to do with them.

00:03:05

Isaac Watson: If we were to dig into this a little bit deeper,  let's figure out what some of the problems. that are underlying these questions, like, why, what is really happening that's causing this stuff to bubble up. And I think that  one of the things is people think about hybrid events in particular is that they either misunderstand or they don't quite care enough or care deeply enough about accessibility and inclusion. I think one thing that was  became  very apparent throughout the pandemic and the shift to online  gatherings and events and  and whatnot, is that  the ability for anybody to connect to your event from wherever they are geographically, economically, wherever  is a massive bo to inclusion and accessibility, and we. We saw audiences balloon beyond what was previously possible with an in person event.

00:04:05

And I think that a lot of people, especially those who were organizing in person only conferences  for a long time,  were blinded to the fact that they  That it actually costs a lot of money to attend an event in person, right? It's not just about the ticket price. And we've gone through this with our clients previously when we're thinking about how do you set ticket prices and budgets and how do you adequately market an event? But it just costs a lot of money. You have to pay for airfare. If it's not in your own city. You have to pay for a hotel. You've got the meals, you've got the ticket, you've got all the other things. There's just a lot involved with it. And having an online. Destroys all of those extra expenses and makes it far more economically accessible.

00:04:48

Nessa Jimenez: Yes, because accessibility isn't just  about  physical, maybe a disability that somebody has, right? It's also about financial accessibility, which has. Up until now hasn't really been part of the conversation, but yes. All of a sudden people could attend these events all around the world that they could never have attended before. So there was an explosion of participation and  To your point of misunderstanding or not caring, in the past couple of years, especially that first year in that first pivot where suddenly people were needing to take the online, the in person event, and in a couple weeks make it an online thing. Accessibility was used as a huge selling point, a huge marketing point, right? And it annoyed us because It was very blatant. because people who never talked about accessibility before, all of a sudden that was like their favorite word and they were using it to sell tickets  to their events.

00:05:51

And go and behold now that  things are coming back to in person. People have shown their ass because they didn't actually care about accessibility, cuz all of a sudden these online

options are gone and all of a sudden they don't care about  giving, making something more accessible to people. And that goes to show you that they really do not care or they just don't understand that  you've gone from creating something that is accessible to so many more people to nope  closing the door. So many people now, and that's gross.

00:06:30

Isaac Watson: What's interesting though is that on the flip side of this, of these questions, there are some people who do care enough about it to know that it's important and to feel obligated to keep their, like anybody who pivoted online from a, from an in person conference  through the pandemic, realized how much more accessible. It was just through the nature of doing it. And so there are some people out there who are like, Yeah  I get it. It's important. And also it's expensive to do a hybrid event. Or they're questioning, Should I just do all online from now on? Or is there an in person possibility?

00:07:13

Where's the balance  between that? So I think another one of the issues. underlying this line of questioning is just this kind of core  lack of understanding or really knowing what an audience's needs are. I think it  as a community leader or an organizer  or any, anybody who has some influence over a group of people in a space like this, if you don't. Truly understand what your audience is looking for.It's gonna be really hard for you to make  an educated decision around how you can fulfill those needs.

00:07:52

Nessa Jimenez: Correct. And we're seeing a backlash  because of that  misunderstanding, right? There are conferences that have announced that they're coming back in person. They are not having an online option. They are not doing any kind of like covid safety related stuff at all. And we're seeing online the backlash that they're getting for that. And there's a lot of people that are just straight up refusing to support or boycott. An example, an easy example, which is wild to me because of just the essence of their business.

00:08:26

So Twitch Con recently announced this year that  they're doing  the. The conference, they're gonna be in person and they just announced that there's gonna be absolutely no like covid safety stuff at all. They're not gonna do any checking, they're not gonna no mask, anything like that. Obviously there's been a huge backlash from a lot of people, especially because    if you don't know what Twitch. Their whole thing is live streaming of events. And  people make their livelihoods like every couple days they stream for an online audience at their homes and whatnot.

00:09:07

And it is really wild that  Twitch cut is doing that because  They already know way before the pandemic how to do online events and online communities. Cuz that's straight up what they are   and like a lot of people are boycotting and they're like, we're not gonna attend. Not just like fans and people that watch Twitch, but a lot of their content creators are like disabled people are people that have   health issues are people that are. One of the reasons they started streaming on Twitch was because they couldn't go to in person things. So they started streaming and they found an audience. So it is absolutely wild that they made that decision and that was  clearly. They do not think about their users and their audience because a lot of people are mad at them.

00:09:57

Isaac Watson: Yeah. I think understanding your audience anyone involved in community leadership or  running a business should know that understanding your audience and your customers and your clients is first and foremost like the. Key thing to have in your arsenal to that informs your marketing, it informs your product and service delivery, all of these things. And yet so many people  completely forget to think about that when it comes to making decisions around hybrid events in particular.

00:10:30

Nessa Jimenez: Yeah, and I wanted, I saved a tweet that I wanted to  bring up today because it is so relevant and it's so awesome. Like the thread, the responses and the conversation it's caused  This comes from at Tarjah underscore pk. And they tweeted this  Yeah, I think it was yesterday. It says, "As an accessibility advocate and disabled person, it's really sad to see no online slash hybrid options for upcoming events. Neither for the audience nor the speakers are we ditching a big part of the community again". There you go.

00:11:12

And this was in response to an announcement from another  conference that they  wanted to participate in, but they can't because they're disabled. And this year they're no longer going to accept any online participation. So  there you go. There is no reason to. Look at your audience, right? And ask that question and really think about that. What do they need? Do they need  online access? Because  the truth is not every event does need to be online, right? There are some that just don't work or it doesn't make sense, but. If your audience needs it, then why are you not doing it?

00:11:53

Isaac Watson: Yeah. And by contrast, not every event needs to be in person either. And I think  that's part of the risk of this line of questioning around, Oh, does it need to be Hybrid is hybrid The new normal? is that hybrid isn't the only option.

00:12:06

First of all, there are a lot of factors that go into deciding  whether or not that's right for you or which format is right for your audience. So that kind of segues into the other, one of the other key problems  that feeds into this line of questioning for me, which is this kind of  short term versus long term thinking. Process. I think it's really easy to think about  what people need right now and to not really think about how, what you are creating with your conference, how that will influence your community over the long haul, how that will influence their  ability to connect with other community members. And how  that affects your growth and your goals and things like that.

00:12:59

A lot of  these questions come from this shorter term mindset of okay  pandemics quote unquote over. And so now we're going back to in person and that is just  a shortsighted way of thinking about things because as we think about global audiences and networks of connected people and all of the things that the internet has provided for us over the last couple decades  there's a lot more at play from a long term perspective than just trying to figure out what to do with your conference this particular year or next year.

00:13:39

Nessa Jimenez: And we don't know if next year. There might be another lockdown for something else. Like we have no idea  that's life. So it's really awkward  to be like, Yeah, this year  we're going back in person, and then next you coming back like, Oh, nevermind  we love you, the online people again  come back  that's, no, that's not cool. Yeah.

00:14:01

Isaac Watson: And there's so many other factors that influence this too. Like we, we touched on the cost to attend an event in person, right? But even outside. A pandemic. There are so many other factors that can influence those costs. We look at how fuel prices have skyrocketed in the last year. That's true because of global conflict, right? What happens when flights become completely inaccessible financially for most people, or if they're making those decisions to purchase flights?

00:14:33

Nine months in advance instead of three months in advance because the fairs are lower. What happens as our climate continues to shift and the younger generation becomes more conscious than they are now even about where they choose to travel and how they choose to travel. All of these things are gonna influence the long term effects of the event industry  on whether or not we're gathering in person or online. And all of these things  should be considerations that you make when you're thinking about your long term community growth.

00:15:10

Nessa Jimenez: And that's a great transition to another point. That we've talked about a lot is this idea of normal's real life or in person events. That's the normal, right? So that we wanna go back to normal and this idea of  there is a way of doing the thing and anything outside of that is, is abnormal. Right?

00:15:34

Isaac Watson: I think  this had me thinking about. First let me say, there is no normal,  there never has been. When you're, especially when you're talking about community building, it is constantly a state of flux. There's an adaptation, there's technology, there's modes of communication. All of this changes. But even amidst all of that, I think back to some of the earliest communities that I was part of when I was in my  early twenties and  high elder millennial here. But I was big into live journal. Which was–. And  anybody who was involved in a forum  or  even dating way back to AOL chat rooms. And  Icq, is that what it was called?

00:16:18

Nessa Jimenez: I think it was called that. Yeah. But  I was totally there too. Yes.

00:16:22

Isaac Watson: We have been building communities online for decades, and I think back to these live journal communities that I was a part of and we were all connected online and we'd be posting regularly and sharing and everything.

00:16:33

And then I was part of this community of Portlanders  it was called Damn Portlanders , and they started hosting monthly meetups in person. We would get together at a pub or whatever to meet each other in person, and that was this in person connective tissue that would  chain us along, but everything in between. Was all online. That was a hybrid experience. That was an ongoing long term hybrid experience. And I made friends that way. I met some really weird people that way. But that was part of the joy of it. And I think that  we're in some respects we're starting to lose sight of  those types of really integrated community spaces that  were  trampling out. In this  attempt to  go back to this normal of in person events?

00:17:24

I think in a lot of ways  in person events were just easier, right? Because you didn't have to worry about masses of people coming from all over the internet. You just had the people walking into the physical. Excuse me, to the physical space. And    community building  is not a normal process. There's no status quo. It's a constant state of evolution and adaptation. And I think if you aren't thinking about what your audience needs and how they're willing to connect with each other, it's really hard  to make decisions around how you're gonna gather them and in which formats  to do so effect.

00:18:05

Nessa Jimenez: in contrast, your experience with live journal. Like my live journal experience, I made plenty of friends that I never met in person. And I never knew their real names. And those were completely valid friendships  and right, like community. But then again there's people my age, like I live in Puerto Rico now, and there's people my age and younger that not I, I would say, Their introduction to the internet and like online communities was like maybe a decade ago. And they're the same age as me, so their experience is completely different.

00:18:39

they're just now starting to learn about these online worlds. It is just as valid to know somebody online and call them a friend as it is  to know someone in person. I agree with you in this idea of  we need to stop acting like in real life is the only real one or the only Only valid version, especially  since the beginning of the internet. We know  that's not true cuz we've been using the internet  for this since the beginning, right? I don't know why we're so stubborn about it, but there is a, there is like a conference or like an event establishment, like a mainstream idea that they're very stubborn to change. And I think  that  they've lasted a long time. But we need to break that down and move on. Yeah. It's okay to do things online. It's not taking away from anything.

00:19:37

Isaac Watson: Yes, exactly. Let's talk about some of the ways we can break that down. So we've talked a little bit about these underlying issues. And some of the problems that, that  breed these types of questions  is when we work with our clients    one of the very first things that we do is dive deeply into understanding who their audience is, what community  they have, and what they are building, so that we can then  make decisions influenced by that. If we don't understand who these people are, then  how can we. Begin to create something special for them, right?

00:20:17

Nessa Jimenez: Strategy first. Then strategy starts with research. You have to know who you're talking to, who is part of this community, and what they care about. And then from there What we do is we design an experience that is inclusive, designed for that community. And for what their needs are. Cuz again,  if most of your audience wants to join online, then why are you insisting on doing it in person only? That does not make any sense.

00:20:47

Isaac Watson: By contrast  we've been working with a client  who was trying to do online stuff for a very geographically concise  group  of audience members. And they weren't doing it very effectively. And so the answer in this case was to go back in person  to be able to really fulfill  that particular event's needs.

00:21:10

So that to me really underscores this core importance of identifying what's right for you. Your audience and not just duplicating what you see everybody else doing or what, especially what  tech telling you that you should do. We've talked about this before,  and a lot of people continue to talk about this, but  the event tech industry absolutely exploded during Covid. And then now what we're seeing is this kind of. Constriction of things where it's like, Oh yeah, an app for everything. A platform for everything.

00:21:47

Everybody wants to do hybrid or they all have these new solutions, but now  it's constricting and rebalancing, but I think  it's even more important now than ever  not to buy into what they're pushing as marketing for these, like hot new ways to create community  and to really focus on identifying what is right for you and your audience rather than just doing what everybody else. That they should do. And that's something we do through our event lab process. It's understanding who your audience is, figuring out what are the ways in which we can meet those goals, and how we can design an event format and create this blueprint for something that will really help you achieve that.

00:22:36

Nessa Jimenez: And as a final thought for this, I just wanna say that accessibility. Accessibility is not a selling point. It is not a marketing strategy. It is not a thing that you use to sell tickets and then not care about, like accessibility is an obligation  to create a space that serves as many people as possible. And it's not cool to all of a sudden abandon these people who finally are able to  access a bunch of things they couldn't before to then just drop 'em like they're nothing.

00:23:08

Isaac Watson: Yeah  would add that accessibility and inclusion are a mindset more than they are a tactic. If you can understand and set your, set yourself. To really grasp the importance and the value that accessibility and inclusion bring to you and to your community, then any efforts you make to be accessible and  inclusive are gonna be more authentic and be better served to your audience members.

00:23:35

Nessa Jimenez: All right, so why don't we bring it on home  and give a bit of a recap of today's episode.

00:23:40

Isaac Watson: All right, so this core question we've been digging into today has been, should my conference be hybrid? And it's hybrid, the new normal. And we tore that apart. We tore that apart. By identifying that  really people are asking that they're worried about the expense of producing a hybrid conference. They want to go back to what's easy. And what they know or  they don't really know what to do with this broader Audi online audience that they've cultivated throughout the remote life that we've experienced through the pandemic. But the ways that we  can really embrace  these audiences and serve them better are by first understanding.

00:24:24

Then designing an experience that is inclusive, using a mindset toward accessibility that is going to be  more holistic and authentic to those audience's needs. And then figuring out not just how you can jump on the bandwagon for whatever event trends are happening, but how you can really. Create something that is best served to you and to your audience's needs rather than just doing what everybody else is doing.

00:25:01

Nessa Jimenez: Thanks for listening to the podcast today. I hope the discussion about hybrid events helps you kickstart your strategy and helps you figure out what's best for your event and your community. But if you want more, you can head on over to geteventlab.com where we have a free copy for you of the tool that we use with our clients to help them answer these questions.That's geteventlab.com and I will see you next time.