According to the research published in Statista, the attendance in large conventions was only 5,000 people back in 2019. With the advent of hybrid events, which have been growing in popularity since the pandemic, tens and thousands of people attend the events from the comforts of their homes, and the message is still being transcended as intended. These are perhaps the reasons behind the remarkable success of hybrid events in 2020 and 2021.

Key trends in hybrid events for the year 2022:

The hybrid events will be the top format of how the events are conducted in 2022 and beyond. Even enterprises that were reluctant to adopt this format will start conducting hybrid events in the future, owing to the benefit of combining the online and offline audiences and the cost benefits it brings about.

1. Hybrid events will become the key to communication strategy:

Traditional in-person events focused on people who were part of the qualified segment in their sales funnel. On the other hand, the hybrid events are increasingly target-oriented and include people on the different stages of the sales funnel. We can expect that by focusing more on hybrid events, businesses will enhance their public relations and communicate the business message to a larger audience for a better reach.

2. Increase in micro-events:

As hybrid events grow in popularity, the focus will be on creating more meaningful and interactive micro-events rather than organizing macro events. The hybrid event platform will be used to conduct many micro-events customized to meet the needs of specific geography and be more specific to the occasion. Also, the micro-hybrid events cost less and pose fewer health and safety risks.

3. The hybrid events will unite the field and the in-office teams:

We can expect that the year 2022 will bring new venues for the hybrid, remote and in-person teams to collaborate and act together. This will help enterprises save time and cost and instantly unite the concerned groups for quick business solutions.

4. Evolution of hybrid events in Education:

We can expect the diverse online event ideas of the hybrid event platforms to address the constraints in the online Education of students. By incorporating the hybrid platform, the education sector will meet the needs of the virtual and in-person audience and is thus expected to conduct more hybrid academic conferences in the future. They will be streamed globally to benefit international students.

5. Inclusion of AR and VR experiences and simulations in events:

The future hybrid events will offer their attendees a complete experience of participating in actual events by incorporating AR and VR technology in the circumstances. It could personalize language translations to comprehend the needs of international attendees. 3D and hologram projects will also be used to enhance the attendees’ event experience. Hybrid event platforms like Virtex have already invested in these techniques to improve the potential for hybrid events through realistic projections to mimic the knowledge of the live events.

Bottom Line:

The event professionals are forced to embrace the real and virtual ecosystem and create experiences to keep the attendees engaged. These trends are good indicators that the hybrid event platform will thrive beyond 2022 and will be the new normal on how the events will be conducted in the future.