Face-to-face attendance increases—or at the very least remains the same—following a hybrid meeting, according to new research and tools released by MPI yesterday. In fact, industry-wide anxiety that hybrid meetings lead two degeneration of in-person events are completely unsubstantiated, according to the studies, supported by the MPI Foundation and mediasite. Other top-level findings:
- 70% of meeting professionals feel that hybrid events will be important to the future of meetings
- But 50% have never organized a hybrid meeting—25% have never even attended or helped organize one
- Meeting professionals who do organize hybrid events must recognize their diverse audiences, which have different needs
- Despite the benefits, remote attendance is often positioned negatively compared to face-to-face attendance
- Ultimately, all events will adapt into hybrid platforms
- Thus, meeting professionals need education and assistance from technology suppliers and their industry associations to help make the case for hybrid events among their stakeholders
- The main concerns: hybrid's costly, attracts less sponsorship and makes speakers anxious
Stay tuned. In the coming days, I'll share more findings as relate to hybrid benefits, formats, vendor selection, design, user experience, measurement and monetization.
http://www.mpiweb.org/hybrid