Two experts chime in with key tips and strategies
for planning hybrid meetings
By Tyler Davidson
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Michael Doyle
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Anyone who’s been to a major meetings industry event in the past couple of years has to have noticed the creeping influence of the virtual world, from live Twitter feeds for everyone to see and onsite bloggers all the way to virtual events that run concurrently with a face-to-face component.
Augmenting a live meeting, convention or event with a virtual version provides a variety of benefits and, perhaps contrary to intuition, does not cannibalize attendance. Rather, according to those who work the field, it can actually be an attendance driver for a subsequent event by demonstrating the quality of the content that is delivered.
“It’s a great way for people to experience the event and then decide to participate in person,” says Michael Doyle, executive director of the Virtual Edge Institute (www.virtualedgeinstitute.com), which primarily works with smaller organizations and associations, but also co-locates its annual Virtual Edge Summit with PCMA’s Annual Meeting. “The first question is usually, ‘Why should I do this, and will it cannibalize my physical event?’ What we’ve found across many organizations that have tracked it is that their attendance at their physical event continues to go up as they go online.
“So it’s a great way to market your event for someone who hasn’t been there before,” he continues. “And there’s always people who can’t attend the event, so this is a good way for them to keep track of what’s going on at the event. So what happens is that they realize they missed a great event and they put it on their calendar for next year.”
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Meeting Planner’s Glossary
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Free Webinar
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Virtual Event Definitions: The Virtual Edge Community’s glossary for key virtual events terms
What is the definition of a Virtual Event? Everything below…and maybe more but here is the official definition of a virtual event: A virtual event is an occurrence of people gathering together where some or all of the attendees are not physically in the same location but are connected in a common environment. The common environment might be one of many types but is usually enabled through the use of computers and the Internet.
Webcast
A Webcast is a transmission of an audio or visual or a combination of audio-visual media file either live or on demand over the internet. Webcasts generally use the streaming media technology, which broadcasts the content from a single source to multiple viewers or listeners simultaneously. Do I need any extra hardware? A Webcast will require a headset or speakers to listen to the audio script or the version as a part of media file streamed on Internet. It does not require any extra high-end hardware other than your PC speakers.
Slidecast
Slidecast is a set of slides broadcasted on the Internet with the synchronization of video and audio effects. Slidecast will facilitate the multiple viewers to see the deck of slides simultaneously in a multimedia presentation format, uploaded on a single source.
Virtual Trade Show/Online Trade Show
A Virtual Trade Show is a combination of some of the most successful elements of a live trade show collected and translated into a multimedia file format and broadcasted or transmitted on the Internet. Virtual trade shows allow the exhibitors and sponsors to reach their target audience round the clock. Some are run over a short time period (1-3 days usually) and others are open for months.
Virtual Expo/Online Expo
A Virtual Expo is an online virtual exposition hall accessible over Internet. It is a multimedia format that gives the real-time experience of visiting and moving (in 2 or 3-d) around in the virtual exposition hall and booths using arrow keys on your keyboard. Available to visitors online, round the clock though there are usually specific times that the exhibitors are present in their booth and you can chat with them.
For more definitions, click here.
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Sustainable Meetings:
Going Green
the Easy Way
Wednesday, September 19
1:00 PM ET, 12:00 PM CT,
11:00 AM MT, 10:00 AM PT
Measurement, standards, reporting…are you more confused than ever about sustainable meetings? You aren’t alone. In fact, you are one of many trying your best to become more sustainable while keeping all of the other meeting planning balls in the air. Join Meetings Focus and Nancy J. Zavada, co-founder of the Green Meeting Industry Council and president of MeetGreen (perhaps the foremost green meetings specialist in the industry), for a webinar that will simplify the process and give you easy steps to reach your goal.
Attendees increasingly prefer greener meetings, so make sure you're up-to-date in delivering them.
During this webinar, we will give you the following tools:
- What you are already doing but may not realize
- How to determine your organization's commitment to sustainability
- What you could be implementing for no additional resources (time and money)
- How you can develop a step-by-step sustainable meeting plan
- How to be recognized for saving your organization money while making it look good
Earn CEUs: This webinar is worth 1 clock hour of continuing education toward the initial CMP application and recertification through the Convention Industry Council.
Register today!
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