Virtually Yours

Virtual and hybrid meetings are set to become the norm rather than the exception

By Tyler Davidson

Diving headfirst into the world of virtual meetings can be quite a challenge, as meeting planners need to familiarize themselves with a whole new universe of terminology, figure out what the best solution is for their organization and make sure the experience doesn’t result in a hefty price tag.

According to a spring 2011 survey of marketers by virtual events company Unisfair (www.unisfair.com), 60 percent of respondents said they planned to increase spending on virtual environments and events, and 67 percent contemplated hosting 10 or more virtual events in the 12 months following the survey. Forty-six percent of the respondents said they expect more than 50 percent of corporate events will be physical-virtual hybrid affairs within two years.

But while terms such as “webcast,” “webinar” and “hybrid event” may be easy to grasp, what does one make of a “bannercast” or “slidecast?” And is now a good time to commit to this new form of meeting? As with any technology, the learning curve started out fairly steep but has now become manageable for meeting planners from novice to veteran.

“There are a lot of different levels you can get into,” says meetings technology speaker Corbin Ball, of consultancy Corbin Ball Associates (www.corbinball.com). “From bringing in a remote speaker—Skype offers an HD signal, so you don’t have a fuzzy image, an image suitable for projecting on a screen in a big room—so you can get into it at virtually no cost.”   Read more...

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