Virtual & Hybrid Event Case Studies
Key findings from the Encore 2022 Winter Planner Pulse
With the world of events ever-changing, staying up-to-date on the latest industry trends is an essential tool for crafting successful experiences. To help ensure your event design, programming and format resonates with today’s audiences, Encore surveys meeting and event professionals quarterly to capture a closer look into today’s event landscape and to maintain a pulse on where meeting event needs are heading.
Read on to learn key insights from our latest survey.
Human connection and engagement are the most impactful values for in-person events
When it comes to the most valuable components of this type of event, networking and relationship-building topped the list.
Connecting audiences to organizations’ missions and providing training and education were two other aspects of in-person events that planners ranked highly. What do these insights mean for your event? It may be worthwhile to focus on these core points with your in-person programming or weave them into the content to be delivered.
It’s worth noting that whether your goal is to drive professional relationships or deliver educational sessions, none of these activities occur in a vacuum. For example, educating attendees on an organization’s mission can help them feel more connected, give them a purpose for being there, encourage engagement with one another and inspire action. Strategic educational programming also provides a great atmosphere for learning and personal growth, which can set the stage for more intentional networking conversations and greatly enhance the overall experience.
In-person events will continue to increase with each new quarter
While meeting and event trends have rapidly evolved over the past few years, our research shows that in-person events have returned as the primary format – a trend expected to gain momentum as we move forward in 2023. This remained consistent with our 2022 Winter Planners Pulse.
Meanwhile, interest in hybrid and virtual gatherings is expected to plateau, with hybrid events forecasted to make up just 15 percent of all events held from the First Quarter of this year to the Third. Similarly, only 14 percent of all events held in the First and Second Quarters are anticipated to be virtual. This number is expected to drop to 11 percent in the Third Quarter.
Planners have not only confirmed the most valuable aspects of in-person events, as outlined in the section above. They’re also prioritizing this format’s benefits over virtual and hybrid advantages when designing experiences.
Most planners expect their audience numbers to grow this year
According to 62 percent of the planners we surveyed, audience sizes will continue to increase in numbers. Four of 10 planners believe the growth in participant numbers will be greater than 10 percent, demonstrating a surge of interest in events overall.
This data brings a welcome implication — people are actively interested in physically attending conferences, meetings and other events, making now the perfect time for you to invest more resources into their event design. Get ahead of the curve by ensuring you have the best solutions to deliver successful outcomes.
Six of 10 planners will see budget increases — driven by food and beverage, room rates and transportation costs
Last year saw tremendous advances in our industry despite the rise in in-person costs, driven by inflation. Luckily, the majority of meeting professionals will likely also see an increase in their budgets, with six out of 10 planners expecting their event budgets to be higher this year than in 2022.
Seventy percent of these budget hikes are predicted to exceed 10 percent, with the uptick largely attributed to food and beverage expenses. Higher rates for hotel stays and transportation are secondary factors that are likely to contribute to the improved budgets as well.
DE&I is an important ESG area of focus
Environmental, social and governance (ESG) objectives remain an opportunity in 2023. We asked planners about four major ESG issues to collect feedback on the role they play in event planning. Those issues were: Diversity, Equity & Inclusion (DE&I), environmental sustainability, social responsibility, and local legislation that aligns with organizational values.
Our findings? Approximately half of event professionals (55 percent) view DE&I as the most important ESG area to consider while selecting venues. This research speaks volumes about how event professionals now prioritize DE&I when making critical event planning decisions.
When it comes to selecting a venue, event professionals regard the other ESG attributes in the following order of importance:
- Local legislation that is aligned with organization values (45 percent)
- Environmental sustainability (45 percent)
- Social responsibility (42 percent)
In terms of choosing an AV/event technology partner, event professionals prioritize the following attributes behind DE&I:
- Environmental sustainability (40 percent)
- Local legislation that is aligned with organization values (39 percent)
- Social responsibility (35 percent)
Insights-led meeting planning for more engaging experiences
Leveraging today’s top trends helps you create more successful events and empowers you to make smart decisions about how to elevate the details behind your event production and design to achieve your specific goals. Download our report today for more data-informed guidance on the factors your peers are considering when planning an engaging and memorable event. It covers the latest information you need to know about our industry’s top trends, so you have the insights you’ll need to deliver an experience that truly resonates with your attendees in today’s event landscape.
Interested in personalized solutions that can help optimize your next event? Request a free consultation with our event experts! We’d love to discuss your specific needs and help you develop a transformative experience that achieves your event goals.
What value do your in-person events provide? Respondents of the Encore Winter 2022 Planner Pulse Report say the greatest value their gatherings provide is networking/relationship building (74 percent). Sixty-one percent say it’s connecting people/employees to an organization’s mission/vision/values; an equal number say it’s education/training/professional development opportunities. Maximizing return on these three areas not only benefits attendees, but it also can benefit meeting professionals.
Of course, understanding the industry landscape is another critical factor in designing meetings and events that resonate with audiences. One trend we’re continuing to see? Demand for in-person experiences remains high, with three in five planners surveyed for the Encore Winter 2022 Planner Pulse anticipating their event attendance to increase by more than 10 percent. The challenge will be to get these audiences to return next year.
To this aim, meeting and event professionals are focused on delivering event experiences that are significant and provide clear advantages for participants. If attendees feel your conference delivered a smooth and streamlined experience, helped them build their networks, connect to the organization and gain important insights, then they’ll be satisfied and more likely to attend again.
Finding tools to prepare attendees for events, as well as connect and engage them during the in-person experience, isn’t easy. Many of the digital tools people relied on during the pandemic fall flat when events are in person. And, according to the Winter 2022 Planner Pulse Report, there is an expected rise in this event format each quarter.
An event platform that delivers end-to-end solutions
A notable exception is the Chime Live℠ event platform. It was developed for use at in-person events, though its capabilities have been expanded to fulfill the needs of any event format.
During the pandemic, its virtual and hybrid event capabilities became much more robust. Now that people are meeting face-to-face again, Chime Live provides an exceptionally flexible platform that can upgrade any event format.
With in-person events, planners can engage audiences before, during and after the program, while also taking elements of the conference off-line. Here are a few key ways this platform can do that and boost the overall impact of your next event.
Manage complex event schedules
With Chime Live, Encore can use the agenda-building tool to create personalized itineraries for participants, based on the customer’s requirements. These individualized tracks may be pushed to separate groups of attendees.
So, for example, if you’re planning a healthcare conference, different tracks could focus on various medical conditions, enabling you to provide targeted information to your audience segments. Alternatively, these sessions can be set up to enable participants to bookmark those they’d like to attend.
Another advantage? These personalized conference schedules can be made available to participants before they arrive onsite. This is especially valuable in helping keep events that feature a number of different breakout sessions running smoothly — and even more valuable if your event sessions are taking place across multiple venues. How? Participants simply need to use their smartphones to access their customized agenda to understand where they need to be and when or choose which sessions best speak to their goals and interests.
Enhance your participants’ learner journey
The tool also gives conference organizers the ability to enhance the attendee’s learner journey by showcasing speakers, assigning pre-conference work and sharing educational resources, such as pre- or post-event knowledge checks. Want to deliver engaging learning opportunities throughout an event? Simply provide live polling during your desired sessions.
Another way to bolster learning opportunities is through peer-to-peer interaction. Foster meaningful conversations about your programming by giving participants access to networking tools — these may even be provided pre-event with Chime Live.
Provide valuable content before, during and after events
Extending access to conference content is increasing in popularity among meeting professionals. Sharing content pre-event builds anticipation and boosts marketing efforts. Post-event, content can be repackaged to increase monetization opportunities and reach new audiences. This 365-day approach to participant engagement also encourages communities to form around the conference, which can enhance your influence.
Chime Live gives meeting organizers an effortless way to prep, organize, present and share this information directly to participants’ mobile devices before, during and after the conference. If there are changes to the schedule or speakers, or important updates about the venue, those can be handled in an instant and pushed directly to everyone’s phone or Encore-provided iPad.
A sustainable way to keep attendees focused on conference content
One of the best perks Chime Live offers is the ability to carefully choreograph conference content to keep attendees focused and engaged during the event. With Chime Live, this process is also more sustainable. To distribute conference materials, an Encore project manager can preload all the paperless content that attendees need on Chime Live-enabled iPads. These resources can be available for attendees before, during and/or after the event for easy reference.
Providing resources this way can up the green factor at your meeting or event by eliminating the need for packets of printed materials, like handouts and discussion guides. If you’re managing last-minute changes to attendee resources, these adjustments may be available immediately with the digital tool, rather than you needing to reprint. Distributing content this way also enhances the participant experience by giving them everything they need to connect, network and learn at their fingertips.
Using their iPads, attendees can ask questions during sessions and upvote their favorites. They can also use the device to chat and network with each other. Planners can amplify audience engagement by pushing out interactive polls, Q&As, forums and more to the iPads at specific times.
Perhaps one of the coolest applications for Chime Live technology is as a second screen. While a presentation is being given, attendees can use their iPads to ‘zoom’ into the presentation slides, rewind to parts they might have missed and take notes. With this tool in their hands, participants are focused on the presenter not on their personal texts or emails.
Keeping the conference conversation going
Want to give attendees access to conference content after the event? If you’re using the Chime Live event platform, you can keep its library of conference content and videos online and give event participants access to additional educational and networking opportunities.
Get key insights to continuously improve your events
Chime Live’s rich post-event analytics report can augment these strategies by providing essential information about patterns of engagement, the themes and content that most resonated with audience segments, and attendee return on investment (ROI). This data can demonstrate the event’s value to key stakeholders and decision-makers. It also can improve the event’s programing. Knowing what content resonated with audiences can help meeting and event professionals pinpoint future themes and content to develop. Understanding what engages your audience and when they tune out increases the potential for improving future engagement.
A streamlined event solution
Staffing challenges, economic uncertainty and fatigue from planning hybrid and virtual events is driving a desire to reduce the overall event footprint and to streamline the experience. Meeting and event professionals also want to ensure the time attendees spend at the conference is more meaningful and productive.
Let’s examine a real-world example of how one event professional overcame these challenges. Jo Merriman, Encore Director, Commercial & Operations, used Chime Live’s end-to-end solutions to enhance the event experience for a financial customer planning their Annual General Meeting.
With high-value investors flying into Avignon, France, from around the globe for the event, Jo showed the customer how the event platform they already knew and loved could also address and streamline complex logistical challenges surrounding the program’s multiple venues, sessions and schedules.
The event featured several fund meetings held across two different venues in the foreign city. Yet with one single solution, Jo was able to help the customer streamline the experience for attending investors while also connecting and engaging participants during each session to deliver a seamless five-star experience.
Want to see how she did it? Explore Jo’s case study here!
We’ve all experienced the stresses of using Internet services at our events, from unstable connections and unexpected drops to stream stuttering and loss of important data. Now, Encore’s new Cradlepoint solution has the bandwidth to keep your event’s Internet running smoothly.
Unlike other cellular-based solutions, the Cradlepoint router’s purpose-built design can stand alone or integrate into a venue’s existing network, while also connecting to multiple LTE networks as fail-safes. That means that no matter what happens to your event’s connection, the show is guaranteed to go on without so much as a hiccup.
Whether you’re planning an event that’s in-person, purely virtual, or hybrid, Cradlepoint is the surefire solution to all your event Internet needs.
Contact your Encore Sales rep today to learn how you can use Cradlepoint solutions at your upcoming event.
Fast and reliable Internet, whenever and wherever you need it.
- Provides standalone Internet connectivity anywhere that has LTE cellular access
- Multi-ISP (Internet Service Provider) redundancy with automatic failover and fallback, allowing for uninterrupted data and streaming
- A must-have backup for high-quality Hybrid and Virtual events
Your Event, Seamlessly Online
- Online Seminars
- Virtual Conferences
- Webinars
- Product Launches
- Livestreams
- Workshops & Training
- Job Fairs
- Meetups & Networking Events
Technology That Connects
Encore’s technology solutions equip you with the latest in innovation to keep your attendees engaged, connected and inspired. Get in touch with our experts for your event experience needs.
All Events - Made Easier
Our team members have the technology and expertise to help transform any event experience with ease—whether in-person, virtual, or a hybrid of the two. Since 2009, Encore has been seamlessly connecting in-person and virtual audiences around the globe. We have a full range of leading-edge solutions to engage with those at your location and participants joining for anywhere. Let’s create the perfect event together.
Elevate Every Event with the Best Platforms
With hundreds of event platforms on the market today, choosing the right solution for any meeting or event can be daunting. So, we’ve curated a portfolio of best-in-class platforms, selecting partners with deep industry expertise to meet your needs. From self-managed one-hour online meetings to fully-managed multi-day in-person conferences and trade shows with hybrid components, we can help you find the best solution and recommend the right level of support from Encore production and technology specialists.
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End-to-End Event Solutions
From strategy and creative to production and technology to the event and post-event follow-up, we have expertise to help you deliver boundless inspiration, connections and engagement.
We'll Work With You Every Step Of Your Event
Benefits of Extending Your In-Person Meeting to Hybrid or Virtual
Expand your in-person meeting to accomodate remote participants with or convert your event to virtual if you can’t meet in-person. There are boundless benefits of engaging your audience virtually and in-person , during and after events that
you may not have considered such as:
Increased Attendance & Scalability
Thought Leadership
Networking
New Revenue Streams
Richer Event Data
On-Demand Viewing Flexibility
Expanded Social Reach
Case Studies for In-Person, Hybrid & Virtual Event Platforms
Need some inspiration? Check out our in-person, virtual and hybrid case studies for some real world examples of our successful customer collaborations.
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