Once upon a time, an event was a simple thing – it took place over a day or two; three at most. People turned up. The event started. Once it ended, they left.

 

Times change. Those few days can now be extended into months, thanks to the value brought by virtual technology. Now you can start engaging your audience in a conversation months before the moderator welcomes the crowd, and months after he’s thanked the speakers.

 

The hybrid event is… limitless.

 

Attendees at a session on success metrics for virtual events at the AMEC Virtual Global Summit on Measurement were told how this extended experience brings so much more data. And with that comes an improved ability to measure success – even inform success.

 

By establishing a baseline before the event starts, you can get a sense of the sentiment around a certain topic to inform your content creation. What’s been the most engaging subject among your community? Push that up the billing.

 

And once the event starts, the data gets event more insightful, to say the least. This session’s moderator, President of Intrado Digital Media Ben Chodor, reveals that he has been able to see exactly who has already left the virtual room.

 

“No one at this event will ever be sneaking off before the end again,” remarks Johna Burke, AMEC’s Global Managing Director.

 

Sylvie Harton, SVP, Global Head of Strategy at Intrado, notes: “You’re going to get a lot of data inside the event and outside the event, and it’s the correlation of the two that is going to help inform business decisions.”

 

The challenge is to keep people engaged. When you can’t turn to your neighbour for a chat, go for a drink in the bar, or explore that cute little town through the window, what’s to keep the virtual attendee interested?

 

Deborah Greif, Director of Corporate Relations and Business Development, American Society of Anesthesiologists, suggests: “Know your audience and what motivates them to stay engaged,” adding that chat and gamification are two effective engagement tools that work for her sector.

 

But does virtual work for every kind of event? Ben surprises when he answers “No,” but adds: “Elements of virtual do work for all kinds of events.”

 

He finishes with a vision of the future: “In two or three years from now, we’re not going to use terms like ‘physical event’ or ‘virtual event’ or ‘hybrid event’. An event is an event is an event, and we’re no longer going to just engage with our audience for three days.”