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Cristela Show
Cristela Show

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What does it take to run a successful hybrid meeting?

Hybrid is the future of the world we live in. More and more companies are shifting to the hybrid model of hosting events. Therefore, it is high time to understand the best practices that you must follow to host a successful hybrid meeting. This article will provide you with some tips to make your hybrid meeting successful.

Develop a Meeting Agenda
Sometimes during a company meeting, people can go off track and the meeting could turn out to be unproductive. Therefore, developing an agenda for the meeting well in advance of the actual event could help you and your employees stay on track throughout. Moreover, it is a great way to ensure that the meeting is productive and everything planned is performed or discussed.

Share the Agenda in Advance
Once, you have developed the meeting agenda thoughtfully, you need to share this agenda with the employees in advance. Sharing it in advance with the attendees of the meeting will help them be aware of the meeting agenda and prepare for it in advance. Moreover, it will help the attendees understand who is hosting the meeting and its objectives.

Finalize the Budget
Hosting a large scale company meeting or a hybrid AGM will require you to incur some costs. Although hosting a hybrid AGM is less costly in comparison to a physical AGM, it still involves significant costs. You will have to rent a venue, spend on catering, accommodation and logistics for hosting a successful hybrid event. Therefore, you must create a budget estimate. This will help you keep a check on your expenses and ensure that you have cash ready when it is needed.

Give Your Employees a Choice
Another best practice to run a successful hybrid meeting is to provide your employees with a choice regarding the way they want to attend the event. The participants can either attend it physically or virtually according to their convenience.

Choose a Customizable Hybrid Event Solution
A self-managed event platform lets you create your event by yourself with the help of the strong support of the platform. It allows you to customize the look and feel of your hybrid event either to promote your brand or to add unique elements to your hybrid event. In addition to this, also check if the hybrid event platform is scalable and can accommodate extra attendees. This will help make your hybrid event more flexible. Furthermore, make sure that the platform provides browser-based solutions. This will make the process of joining the meeting easier.

Check Your Equipment
All types of events are highly vulnerable to technical complexities. Technological breakdowns can occur more than often during a hybrid event. Therefore, conducting a thorough check on all the technical equipment and the software can help you run a successful hybrid meeting. This will ensure a smooth hybrid meeting and also help you identify the problems in advance and fix them if needed. Moreover, it will also help you set up the camera, mic and other devices. This will help ensure that all the equipment are configured well and ready to be used.

Create Compelling Content
Create content that considers the needs of both virtual and in-person audiences. It is important to create content in a manner that helps you cater to the needs and preferences of both sets of audiences. For instance, virtual attendees have a shorter attention span and require more breaks and shorter sessions. However, in-person attendees have a longer attention span and do not require as many breaks. Bringing everyone on the same page and creating content that resonates with everyone is difficult and requires planning and execution.

Plan the Engagement Activities in Advance
The strategy for engaging both online and offline attendees should be different. You need to make a list of all the engagement activities and check if they will resonate well with both sets of audiences. Therefore, it is important to plan the engagement activities very carefully. You need to align the interests of virtual and in-person attendees with each other and arrive at the best engagement activities for both.

Harmonize Online and Offline Experiences
Hosting a hybrid event means taking care of the experiences of the online and offline attendees. Therefore, you need to develop a harmony between the online and offline experience. Also, make sure that both sets of audiences get an immersive and engaging event experience.

Take Feedback and Suggestions
Another important attribute of a hybrid event is taking feedback and suggestions from the attendees. Feedbacks help build a sense of worthiness and value in the minds of the attendees. Moreover, it also helps the organizer gather actionable insights based on which they can take corrective steps.

Final Words
Following the above steps can help you manage both online and offline experiences and provide an amazing hybrid meeting experience to the attendees.

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