In this blog you will learn about 6 common mistakes and how to avoid them:
- Avoid technical language
- Leaving out the online participants
- Skipping Rehearsals
- Having a boring host
- To long schedules
- Poor internet connection
1. Avoid technical language
In large meetings or events, dense content can quickly lose the audience's attention.
Keep your sentences short and simple. Instead of incorporating a lot of facts and numbers, try to keep it conversational. If you ask your audience to interact and join the conversation, make it easy for them. It is important that you foster conversation and a dialogue rather than a pure monologue.
2. Leaving out the online participants
Hybrid events have lots of advantages, but they also come with a number of shortcomings - your virtual audience needs to feel engaged. An event is not a live stream and if it feels like one, the attention of your participants will be very, very short - so short, you might as well leave the online component aout. Therefore, you have to involve your online and your in person audience.
We cannot stress this enough– Do not forget any of your audience members, if anything, put more effort into engaging with the online audience through interactive tools such as live chat, polls and q&as, speed quizzes, and collages or breakout rooms.
3. Skipping rehearsals
While practice is important in the in-person experience, it is even more essential that everything on the virtual front is working.
This includes everything- from lights to camera to materials and content, and your backup internet connection and of course your interactive elements of the experience.
4. Having a boring host
It is frustrating when you are looking forward to being part of an online event, but the host just puts you to sleep. Not everyone speaks well and has the ability to engage the audience. So, pick someone who is confident, comfortable with technology, and will be able to engage both the in-person and virtual attendees.
Provide them with support and training at the same time. Ask them if they have any reservations and if you can assist them in any way. There is no use in making the host feel like they are carrying the responsibility of the outcome of the entire event. You are a team, afterall.
5. Too long schedules
You can expect to be able to control your event's timing when it's completely physical. However, you cannot force your online attendees to sit for long periods of time when it's a hybrid event - they will lose interest and zone out. The online attendees will be more engaged if you shorten your sessions.
Consider spreading the content out over days, if you cannot shorten the sessions. For instance, divide the content that you would present in one day over two days. If your event is spread out over days, you can use tools like quizzes, polls and other gamification between the days to keep your audience interacting with your content despite not having any live content.
6. Poor internet connection
This is an easy to avoid mistake that people make when hosting hybrid or online events. If you have an internet issue on the event's day, all your efforts to train your speaker, partner with an agency and create materials and content will have been wasted.
A glitched internet connection can wreak havoc on your event's success. Not only would it irritate your online audience, but it will also upset your in-person attendees.
Creating a successful hybrid event takes a lot of work, so it is better to start planning it as early as possible. There are a few common errors that you should avoid. Follow the list we have shared above, so you don’t repeat these common mistakes.
If you have any questions about how to use Stagecast at your event, connect with someone on our team who can share best practices.
Did not find what you were looking for? We got many more articles in the Stagecast blog. Why don't you take a look around?
.png){kind=spacer}
