I recently participated – virtually – in a hybrid conference.  I was very curious, of course, to see how it went because most observers of the conference world expect some version of what I saw to become the future of the meeting business.  Everyone wants to know:  what’s the model going to be? What works and what doesn’t? How do we surprise and delight both in-person and virtual attendees?

After 2 half-days and a number of speeches, panels, and discussions, I’ve got a few preliminary conclusions about the virtual end of the hybrid meeting.

1. For virtual attendees, watching and asking the occasional question is not participating. I felt like a second-class citizen, unable to follow fully what was going on in the room, where it seemed that the in-person attendees were both learning more and having more fun than I was.  Just watching the action virtually, even though the level of energy, moderation, and speaking in the room was quite high, was not enough to make me feel a part of the action.  At minimum, I think organizers need to have breakout rooms for the virtual attendees and a bigger role for them to play.
2. There are going to be technical problems. I presume the technology will improve, but currently, even with the latest software and an entire tech team on the case, there were still mics that didn’t work, mute buttons that didn’t get turned off or on, and switches from one sound and video source to another that were clumsy.  More problematic than any of that, in fact, was the mismatch between audio and video on the feed from the stage to the audience at home.  It was wide enough that it was perfectly apparent most of the time, and so it was hard to match gesture and word.  That is both tiring and undercuts the (virtual) audience’s sense of the dynamism of the show.  It starts to look like a very old-fashioned movie despite your best efforts to mentally cut the speakers and MC some slack.
3. You need an MC who is specifically focused on the virtual audience. Our MC did a heroic job with a lot of charisma, keeping the conference moving, introducing speakers, vamping when things went wrong, fielding questions, talking to the in-person audience, and addressing the virtual audience – but he was working too hard. Inevitably, what slipped was attention to the virtual audience. Future hybrid conferences need to address the MC role with some creativity and fresh thinking.  It should not be left to one person.
4. Rather than thinking of a hybrid conference as one conference, think of it as two simultaneous ones. I think the way out of the second-class citizen problem is to give the virtual audience something meaningful to do as part of the conference. The virtual audience is going to need a somewhat different narrative to keep it engaged. How can it contribute something worthwhile on its own, rather than just getting the crumbs from the in-person table? And then, how can you tie the two sets of experiences together?
5. Rather than restricting the virtual attendees to one view of the action, consider giving them ‘backstage passes’, extra interviews, and other additional video moments. The way to think about the virtual conference is to ask how it can be made different, even better, than the in-person one. How about backstage interviews with the thought leaders?  How about networking rooms and chat? Conversely, how about additional interviews and other material that in-person attendees could access on their own time as well?

If the hybrid conference model is going to become the norm, we need to think of it as more than just a chance to eavesdrop on a conference from your computer.  What else can we do to make hybrid conferences work better than they do now?