Many companies are switching to a hybrid setup as it allows them to get the best of both worlds. This allows their employees to get the comfortability of working from home while also working from their office to keep them socialized and engaged. With that, there are plenty of things you should adapt to the hybrid setup, which includes company events.
When it comes to hosting company events with a hybrid platform, you need to consider your virtual and physical employees. As you host virtual company events, there are plenty of things you should consider to make your work-from-home employees feel included and special.
Listed below are some tips for organizing hybrid company events:
Plan it properly
You need to plan each event properly for an organized hybrid company event. It’d be best if you take the time to ensure that every tiny event detail has been figured out. You don’t want to encounter any issues during the event itself. Remember that planning an event doesn’t happen overnight; it takes time and effort to ensure everything will run smoothly.
Set up the right equipment
Have the necessary equipment for your event. This includes microphones, speakers, and cameras since you’ll be streaming your event online for your virtual attendees. It’ll help ensure everything is working correctly before proceeding with your event. You don’t want to tackle technical issues during your event since it’d bring a lot of dead air, which is challenging, especially for your virtual attendees.
Have a stable and fast internet connection
Since you’ll have a hybrid company event, it is crucial to ensure that you have a stable and fast internet connection. This ensures that virtual attendees won’t experience lags or issues while streaming the event. If you have a bad internet connection, the experience will vary for your employees since onsite employees would experience the event entirely. In contrast, some of your remote employees would miss out on some parts.
Set a theme for the event
Make sure you select a theme that’s appropriate for the event. There are a lot of events you can implement with the hybrid setup. Ideally, you need to pick a theme that makes your event more appealing, exciting, and engaging for your onsite and remote employees. This allows everyone to truly enjoy and feel the event, allowing them to be entertained during the entire event.
Choose an event platform
Using an appropriate platform for your event could help organize these company events. Some platforms have different features, such as registration, social media integration, and live event streaming. However, you shouldn’t forget to prioritize platforms with live event streaming since this will be a hybrid event.
Balance the event
Since this is a hybrid, you must ensure that it balances for both your onsite and remote employees. You don’t want to have a bias when it comes to this. The event should cater to and be beneficial for both of them. Both of them will attend the event, and they should have the same takeaway and experience once it is over.
Even though in-person and virtual attendees share the same experience from the event, remember that delivering your content to these groups shouldn’t be the same. It’s easier to provide the event to the in-person attendees; on the other hand, you need to ensure that you have a working streaming platform for your virtual attendees. Also, should there be any group participation you don’t want to isolate one group. Make sure to make them all feel included so everyone can participate and enjoy the event.
Time zone awareness
Even though hybrid events make it more accessible for your employees all around, organizing this type of company event is no easy task since you have to take note of the time zone of each virtual attendee. You don’t want anyone to compromise when it comes to this since they all should have the chance to attend the event, and you must handle the varying time zones properly so everyone can attend the event.
If there’s an unresolvable issue with the other time zones, you must ensure that you offer the event multiple times to cater to those who couldn’t attend the previous sessions due to the time zone discrepancies. You can rerun the event for a group of people with the same time zones or with little time zone differences. This allows everyone to have the chance to partake in the event.
Keep it engaging
You need to make sure that the event is engaging for all of your attendees. The virtual attendees should match what the in-person attendees are experiencing. Should the event have portions that need participation from the attendees, it’s better to take volunteers from both groups, which would help everyone feel included.
Organizing your event to be engaging makes it more seamless and flawless for all your employees. This helps bridge the gap between the in-person and virtual attendees making it more fun and collaborative event. Streaming the event to the virtual attendees properly will make them feel they’re part of the event, allowing them to enjoy the day similar to those who had made it in person.
Plan games properly
If you want an exciting session or event, you could plan games that your attendees can participate in. These games can help them get hooked and stick to the whole duration of the event. Providing small tokens for each game would help make them want to participate more since there would be rewards. This would add a good experience for everyone joining the event, no matter where they are.
Games are fun and can keep the attendees more engaged with the event. Remember to think of all the employees to ensure that the games you’re conducting are balanced and fair to all. You don’t want any of them leaving the event, especially if only the other group is having fun.
Takeaway
Organizing a hybrid event can be challenging as you’re hosting two audiences: one for your physical attendees and one for your virtual ones. With this, you must ensure that you allow everything to be polished and smooth for everyone’s enjoyment. While it might require additional months or weeks of preparation, it’ll help guarantee you a smooth-sailing event.
