Hybrid Experiences 101. Why a platform’s features alone won’t cut it, you need the team

Jack Blog

May 24th, 2021 By Mike Norman

There is a lot of chatter today about supporting a hybrid event now that live experiences are starting back up. Jack Morton’s brand experience platform – Jack ethos – has just been updated with new features that make it easy. Most importantly, it doesn’t compromise the experience for the live or virtual audience.

Our focus has been on delivering the best virtual events anywhere for the past year.  However, for 80+ years before that, we were focused on creating the best live events worldwide.  Now, we’re combining our never-ending love for live with our newfound love of virtual to bring our clients extraordinary hybrid experiences.

As we ease back into “normal” life and pre-pandemic behaviors, we see the demand for live events rising exponentially.  However, not everyone will be willing or able to attend an event in person, so we need to cater to both audiences while giving both a stellar experience.  Hence, a hybrid event is live and virtual all at once – without prioritizing or limiting one audience’s experience.

Every virtual platform has pivoted to now incorporate hybrid capabilities. That’s not new. We’ve read all about the features claiming, “hybrid is here!” but a platform’s features alone aren’t going to cut it. A platform doesn’t deliver a great hybrid event. A rock-solid team does. The platform is just the vessel and an important one but not the only thing that matters.

Hybrid events need the expertise of a team that’s run virtual events for the last year, combined with the expertise of running live events for decades.  That combined experience and knowledge is how you deliver a fantastic hybrid experience.

We’ve used our years of experience to upgrade Jack ethos with the features that ensure your hybrid event is a smashing success:

  • Registration features for both audiences.
  • Tags for users to note who is on-site and virtual to better support networking.
  • Site alerts that message your audience and can target by audience type.
  • Analytics broken down by audience.
  • Easy access to chat, polls, resources, and content.
  • Bandwidth limits for in-person attendees to ensure they have a great experience and aren’t fighting to connect with the on-site Wi-Fi network.

Virtual experiences aren’t going away. They’re just evolving to accommodate more live elements. And sure, while your platform has to evolve, too, an actual hybrid experience isn’t something you can buy in a box. You need to combine flawless event execution with the best technology. Only then can you deliver an extraordinary experience to all of your audiences.