If not careful, meeting planners can lose their freedom to choose their AV provider as soon as they sign a venue contract. And with technology playing an even bigger role in events during and after the pandemic, this loss can cost dearly.

Without the right expertise, hybrid events can look like a two-ring circus. But when they work, they can feel like a dazzling, seamless show worth remembering.

Now that the stakes have been raised, meeting planners and event organizers must find the right people with the right talent to tell their leadership’s story to the growing masses.

Some of your attendees will multitask while at the event. A few will eat a meal during the event. Others will reassure their children while the keynote speaker addresses the audience.

In the next-normal era of hybrid events, meeting planners and event organizers face a tall challenge to capture the shrinking attention spans of their audience—no matter where they physically are.

Ask any hybrid meeting planner or event organizer.

Logistically speaking, a hybrid event should be plural. In other words, a next-normal hybrid event is two events—one live event, one remote event—that happen at the same time. This reality increases the risk and level of difficulty when it comes to communicating your organization’s message to its masses.

On the flip side, the opportunity to reach a larger audience and add new streams of revenue truly exist.

The pandemic didn’t create hybrid events—but it made them more valuable. This new wave of dynamic, interactive, accessible events isn’t part of the “new norm.” However, it is a big part of the next normal, bringing more organizations and more people closer together even when they are afar...

The pandemic has changed many things in our lives, including meetings and events.

As live events return amid the COVID-19 pandemic in the coming months, they will require a variety of modifications from planners, venues and audiovisual (A/V) providers. Hybrid meetings — blending both in-person and virtual components — will be the new norm for quite some time. Resources will be stretched as planners navigate the new event landscape and respond to ever-changing protocols.

Virtual events, hybrid meetings and live streaming will continue to be the “new normal” amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

As live events return, they will look very different and require a variety of modifications from planners, venues and audiovisual (providers. For example, hybrid meetings—blending both in-person and virtual components—will be the new norm.