By: Tara Higgins, President, Hargrove & SVP Commercial, Encore
Our final installment in our series on B2Me℠ event planning culminates into the dynamic, highly scalable framework of hybrid event design. Hybrid not only offers vast design potential, but also revolutionizes our ability to deliver the three audience essentials: human connection, immediacy, and authenticity.
By integrating a remote and physical audience, hybrid events empower attendees with the ultimate personalization of their experiences. Successful event strategy leans into the attendees’ desire for customization. High-impact and high-energy events are achievable in the hybrid realm with B2Me℠-focused event planning. The key is in the design and utilizing data driven insights. A well thought out experience, paired with the right solutions, will create an event that is both transformational and valuable for all attendees. Through increased accessibility, innovative event technologies, and the longevity of thoughtfully crafted content, immersive hybrid experiences will connect and captivate all audiences.
Community Growth with Increased Accessibility
The power of technology allows us to break down barriers and share content like never before. In fusing the live and the virtual, we create an “experience channel” that eliminates the limitations of fixed event schedules and physical capacity constraints. A fully integrated experience is achieved, giving access to an even greater audience. Hybrid events expand a brand’s reach, growing communities and connecting audiences globally. Through reducing these locational and financial blockers, events become increasingly more accessible. When these limitations are reduced, brands evolve through community engagement and an expanding global influence.
Event Technologies and Hyper-Personalized Experiences
Hybrid event technologies open new opportunities for enhanced, fully customizable experiences. Participants are empowered with the ability to choose how they show up, consume content, and interact with each other. The freedom to connect in-person or from remote locations, personalized attendee journeys, and multiple engagement and networking opportunities, all allow attendees the opportunity to derive the greatest value for them through this new breed of media. Technology can also be utilized to further improve event accessibility. Options for captioning, language translation, and multilingual content all create a more inclusive experience.
Strengthen Brand Identity through Content Longevity
A thoughtfully crafted content strategy can maximize your event dollars and further solidify brand identity. Creating authentic and intentional content allows it to serve the present audience, while also having significance beyond the principal event. With longevity in mind, the event messaging can expand into subsequent forms of content and delivery. Pre-recorded, live, and on-demand sessions evolve the event experience into one that is flexible and directly in service of the attendee. Regardless of location, time zone, or device, they are able to connect.
For those who aspire to plan and deliver events that transform, regardless of their size, location, or platform, we aim to support and inspire you with all that hybrid has to offer you and your audience. We firmly believe that when we work with our customers, Hargrove is in the business of communication and connection, not just the event business.
Whatever industry or sector we are supporting, understanding your objectives and ambition for the event is our mission; finding solutions to pursue those efficiently and effectively through experience-based solutions is what we do every day. With over a decade of hybrid event experience, our passion is rooted in using the best tools and techniques to design experiences that are uniquely captivating, amplify brand culture, and bring shared interest communities together to drive an event’s business and attendee value.
Hargrove from Encore. In Transformed Times, Events That Transform.
Hargrove has delivered thousands of live events for 75 years. Today we also plan and deliver thousands of virtual and hybrid events. In making this statement, we humbly recognize the ongoing trust placed in us by our global client base. We gratefully acknowledge the passion and professionalism of our dedicated worldwide teams. And we proudly continue to grow our skills and knowledge base – and to offer our insights and best practices to events professionals everywhere – as we work side-by-side to futurescape the events industry.
By: Tara Higgins, President, Hargrove & SVP Commercial, Encore
In part one of our look into the world of B2Me℠ marketing in event planning, we discussed the process of audience evaluation and the commonalities shared across all audience demographics. B2Me℠ recognizes that understanding the audience goes beyond demographic and industry sectorizations and seeks to design events for the individual. Our approach asserts that there are three key collective audience essentials as part of every event experience: human connection, immediacy, and authenticity.
Elevating the event planning process to center around these three guiding insights allows us to design bespoke experiences that excite live, virtual, and hybrid participants.
By specializing in the intricacies of engagement, experience, and content strategy, we deliver the three audience essentials – regardless of medium.
Human Connection with Engagement
Do your events just assemble people, or do they truly connect them? A strong engagement strategy generates feelings of power and purpose through attendance. Participants are enriched, energized, and empowered by being part of a shared human experience.
Engagement is twofold; it cultivates a sense of community and connects people directly, whether in a shared physical environment, virtual setting, or a mix of both. Selecting engagement tools that connect all participants is key, regardless of venue or location. Break out sessions, chats, and live polling can all be utilized to foster connection while providing valuable insights about the audience experience.
Immediacy through Experience
In a world that is dominated by curated digital platforms and targeted direct-to-consumer marketing, you can no longer rely on your audience to simply attend. The root of B2Me℠ event design is in hyper-personalization.
Your event needs to be an immersive and visceral experience. There must be sensory appeal that draws people in, inviting them to show up, tune in, engage, and leave feeling changed. In-person and virtual events need to be designed with the individual experiences at the forefront, while also creating pinnacle moments that transcend beyond time and space, leaving lasting impressions for all audiences.
Authenticity in Content Strategy
An effective content strategy goes beyond sharing information; it reinforces the bond between companies, brands, and consumers. It leaves a legacy influenced by culture that is quintessentially unique and speaks directly to your audience. You must communicate with the audience through messages and in ways that speaks to them directly and powerfully.
Shared challenges have given audiences new perspectives and re-prioritized values. Communication of all kinds – brand, business, internal, external, association, government – has evolved to accommodate new contexts and new outlooks. Your content strategy needs to cut through the excessive noise of the present and digital worlds to reach your audiences with messaging that is authentic and captivating.
Understanding your audience will always remain a key piece of the discovery phase as you design the engagement, experience, and content strategy that drives each event. But ultimately, you’ll be challenged to design an experience that speaks to the individual needs of each attendee. As planners, marketeers, makers, creators, producers, and hospitality professionals, it remains our purpose to look to the unexpected and conceptualize the “wow” of unforgettable, shared human experiences. Whether an in-person, virtual, or a hybrid event, this desire for a unique experience and connection remains.
The B2Me℠ shift may change how we create the flame, but the spark still ignites, creating the power to transform events into engaging experiences.
Hargrove from Encore. In Transformed Times, Events That Transform.
Hargrove has delivered thousands of live events for 75 years. Today we also plan and deliver thousands of virtual and hybrid events. In making this statement, we humbly recognize the ongoing trust placed in us by our global client base. We gratefully acknowledge the passion and professionalism of our dedicated worldwide teams. And we proudly continue to grow our skills and knowledge base – and to offer our insights and best practices to events professionals everywhere – as we work side-by-side to futurescape the events industry.