Sales Loves MarketingHybrid events are part of the future of events, but they have not replaced in-person or online-only formats. They pay off when you need to reach people who cannot travel, want recordings and content after the event, or want to cut travel emissions. They also take more work than either alternative, because you are running one event for two audiences at the same time.
What is a hybrid event?
A hybrid event has an in-person audience and a remote audience who take part at the same time. The test of a real hybrid event is whether the remote audience can participate: ask questions, vote in polls, meet other attendees and, ideally, present. An in-person conference with a livestream is a broadcast, not a hybrid event.
There are a few common set-ups:
- One venue plus online: the classic format, with a main stage that is streamed and online sessions or chat for remote attendees.
- Several hubs plus online: smaller in-person gatherings in different cities, linked to each other and to people joining from home.
- In-person core, online extras: a physical event where selected sessions are streamed and the rest is available on demand afterwards.
Why are organisers choosing hybrid?
Reach beyond the room
A venue has a capacity limit and travel has a cost. A remote option lets people join who would never have bought a plane ticket, including prospects in other countries and colleagues of the people who attend in person.
Accessibility and inclusion
People with caring duties, disabilities, small travel budgets or visa problems can take part. At the 16th Deep-Sea Biology Symposium in 2021, a hybrid scientific conference studied in Frontiers in Marine Science, 422 of the 581 attendees joined online. When asked about future meetings, 74% of surveyed attendees said they wanted them to be hybrid.
Lower emissions
Travel, especially flying, drives most of an in-person conference's footprint. A 2021 study in Nature Communications by Tao and colleagues estimated that moving a conference from in person to fully online cuts its carbon footprint by 94% and its energy use by 90%. A hybrid set-up with carefully chosen in-person hubs could cut both by about two-thirds while keeping more than half of the attendance in person. The authors note these hybrid figures come from modelled scenarios.
More content and more data
Every streamed session is also a recording. That gives your marketing team videos, clips, articles and podcast material for months, and the online platform tells you who watched what, which helps sales follow up. Our guide to event marketing covers how to turn that into pipeline.
What are the downsides of hybrid events?
You serve two audiences at once
People in the room and people at home have different needs. Speakers tend to play to the room. Remote attendees compete with their inbox. In the Deep-Sea Biology Symposium survey, 53% of online attendees found it hard to set aside time for the meeting, compared with 18% of onsite attendees, and only 44% of all participants interacted with both groups.
Cost and complexity
You need a venue and catering, plus cameras, sound, a stable connection, an online platform and people to run it. The same study found the conference's hybrid budget was slightly lower than an estimated in-person budget of the same size, while an online-only event would have cost considerably less. Your own numbers will depend on production quality and attendance.
Networking is harder online
Chance conversations in the hallway are the main reason many people attend in person, and they are hard to copy online. Without deliberate design, remote attendees end up watching rather than meeting.
Remote tickets can cannibalise in-person ones
If the online experience is close to the real thing, some people will stay home. That is fine if reach is your goal, but not if your revenue depends on in-person tickets and sponsors who pay for footfall.
When should you choose a hybrid event?
| Choose | When |
|---|---|
| In person | Relationships matter most, the audience is local or senior, and deals are made in conversation |
| Online only | Your goal is education or lead generation at scale and budget is tight |
| Hybrid | You need both: a strong in-person core, plus reach, recordings and inclusion for people who cannot travel |
For more on the online side, see our virtual event marketing ideas. For a broader list of benefits, read why hybrid events are crucial for your business.
How do you make a hybrid event work?
- Decide what remote attendees can do. The Frontiers study recommends defining the format clearly up front, including whether online attendees can present.
- Use one platform for everything. The same study recommends a single place for talks, Q&A and messages, ideally with a mobile app that people in the room use too.
- Give remote attendees a host. A moderator who brings online questions into the room changes the experience for people at home.
- Design shared moments. Joint polls, mixed breakout groups and online networking slots help the two groups meet.
- Caption live sessions. The W3C's accessibility guidelines ask for captions on all live audio at level AA. Captions also help people watching without sound.
- Price the tickets separately. Remote and in-person tickets offer different value, so they usually need different prices.
- Plan promotion for both audiences. For the in-person event, a public event page with event structured data can be eligible for Google's event listings in the countries where Google offers them. Google does not support the markup for events that are only online. Use email, partners and a press release to reach both groups.
Our step-by-step guide to hosting a hybrid event covers the planning in detail, and our list of hybrid event platforms compares the software.
So, are hybrid events the future?
They are one of the formats of the future, not the only one. In-person events still win for building relationships, and online events still win on cost and scale. Hybrid makes sense when you need some of both and are willing to invest in the remote experience. If you are not, a strong in-person event plus good recordings afterwards is often the better choice.
Frequently asked questions
What is a hybrid event?
A hybrid event has a live, in-person audience and a remote audience who join online at the same time. A good hybrid event is designed for both groups, so remote attendees can ask questions, network and take part instead of only watching a stream.
Are hybrid events more expensive than in-person events?
Usually they cost more effort, because you need both a venue and a production and online platform setup. One academic conference studied in Frontiers in Marine Science found its hybrid budget was slightly lower than an estimated in-person budget of the same size, while online-only would have been much cheaper. Costs depend on the size and format.
Are hybrid events better for the environment?
They can be. A 2021 study in Nature Communications estimated that moving a conference fully online cuts its carbon footprint by 94%, and that a hybrid set-up with well-chosen in-person hubs can cut it by about two-thirds while keeping more than half of attendance in person.
What is the biggest challenge with hybrid events?
Keeping the remote audience engaged. In a survey of attendees at a hybrid scientific conference, online attendees found it much harder to set aside time and concentrate than onsite attendees, and fewer than half of participants interacted with both groups.