How to Make Hybrid a Hit: Takeaways From MIX 2022

May 18, 2022

Live streaming, in-person watch parties, virtual viewing around the world, and broadcast-quality production—that’s what Mastering Immersive Experiences (MIX) 2022 looked like. A terrific hybrid event indeed.

So terrific, in fact, we thought it would be unfair if we kept the gems of knowledge learned at our first hybrid event away from you. So we sat down with one of Hubilo’s premier event professionals, Jessica Connolly, who spearheaded the planning, management, and execution of MIX, and picked her brain to get the top takeaways from the event. Here’s what she had to say.

Create pre-event buzz to tease the audience for the event

“Building excitement with your online community before the event is a time investment well-spent. We ran a social media contest before the conference that drove a lot of awareness about MIX. It allowed attendees to get excited before MIX started. And to find out if they’d won, they had to tune in to the event. So our pre-event social contest ended up being a great way to convince those who signed up to attend and discover what else was in store.”

Separate engagement experiences for virtual and in-person attendees

“There truly are two separate audiences that you’re trying to engage during a hybrid event. You have to create different experiences for both of them because they’re in different settings.

And while we kinda knew this going into the event, we really learned the ways that this manifested. For example, with contests that we set up online, our virtual audience loved them and leaned heavily on the chat feature; however, our in-person attendees really embraced face-to-face networking. Everything isn’t going to translate, and that’s ok.

Get your event a “Rachel”

“If you go back and watch something on demand, maybe you’re just watching that particular session. But for a live experience, when we wanted people to be engaged, Rachel Moore really tied it all together. She connected with the audiences both virtual and in-person. Sometimes she’d talk while a session was happening, or when the virtual audience went to break she’d be giving directives to the in-person audience. She was just so personable and that was huge.

On top of that, Rachel had a co-moderator, Sabrina Meyers, who made the experience even better because there was that banter that broke up the session content and ensured that both physical locations got on-screen time.”

Wondering if there’s more where these came from? There is! Check out the on-demand recording of MIX 2022 here.

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