How to get the most out of your hybrid event

Table of Contents

The Concept

Increased flexibility for exhibitors

The ‘Mobile view’  for participants
Connecting the offline with the online venue via QR codes

1. Event QR Codes for you as organisers

2. Stall QR codes for your exhibitors

Final tips & best practices

The Concept

The core idea behind the hybrid solution is to enable organisers to benefit from the advantages of the online features, while being able to have the exhibitors and participants meet in person at a physical venue. This solution brings limitless possibilities regarding online and physical attendance for both recruiters and candidates, and therefore combines the best of both worlds. 

As the organiser of a hybrid event, you and your exhibitors can be more creative with your breakout rooms and presentations. For instance, you can host them online with the usual zoom setup, but as you are no longer limited by the speakers being at home, you can have a more professional setup, with a better camera and microphone. With hybrid, the speakers can address people both online and present physically, creating dynamic interaction opportunities.

You can also decide to spread your event over several days, having one day only in person, so exhibitors and candidates can meet in person at the physical stall and then the next day can take place online to continue chats virtually, and allow students to browse the stalls further, as well as to apply for jobs. 

Increased flexibility for exhibitors 

Exhibitors can use the digital area of the platform to different degrees. Whereas it is possible to limit the presence on the event to only online or only physically, it is also possible to make use of both simultaneously to different degrees.

We recommend that each exhibitor that is participating in the event is at least present with an online booth. In that way, they can share information, jobs, and visual content via their online stall but can interact with the participants in person. You can read more about the advantages of setting up an online stall in this article. 

Moreover, each exhibitor can decide how to include different digital features. It is, for example, possible to activate or deactivate the chat or to set 1:1 conversations or breakout rooms up as online, offline, or hybrid.

The ‘Mobile view’ for participants

Participants, that attend the event physically, can use the mobile view of the platform to access the virtual venue instead of a computer. They can use the mobile view to stream Live Presentations, chat, make video calls, share their profile with companies, and more. All they have to do is to scan the QR codes at the physical venue. 

If a participant attends the event 100% online, we do recommend using a computer for the best experience. 

Examples of how participants can use the mobile-view when attending the event physically:

• They can view the online content the different companies have. By scanning the QR codes of the exhibitors they can easily find the content of the specific company. 
• They can register for the event and let the organisers know if they will attend the event physically or online.
• They can check out the map of the physical venue to find out where the different recruiters’ stands are located. 
• They can chat and connect with companies online. If there is a long line to a specific stall, they can connect with the company online instead of waiting 20 minutes for their turn. They can use the chat to let them know that they would like to talk to them when they have time or to a book 1:1 conversation. These conversations can be set up as either physical or virtual by the companies. 
• Edit their profile.

Connecting the offline with the online venue via QR codes

1. Event QR codes for you as organisers

Clicking on the new QR page button in the event overview will allow you to display the QR code at your physical venue so participants can easily access the online part of the event. They simply scan the QR code with their mobile device and are redirected to your event.

We highly recommend, promoting the QR code at different places at the physical venue (e.g. at the entrance) to actively promote the online section of the event. 

2. Stall QR codes for your exhibitors 

Each exhibitor will have access to an individual stall QR Code in their stall settings tab. This will allow them to easily display the QR code to candidates at the physical venue. Candidates visiting their stall in person will then be able to scan the code with their mobile device and access the online stall to see the jobs and connect with the recruiters virtually.

Read more about how the exhibitors experience it here. 

Final tips & best practices

To round off, we want to share some final tips and best practices with you for organising a hybrid event:

• Set clear responsibilities. Organising a hybrid event can be overwhelming at the beginning as it feels like you have to think about the physical event and the online venue at the same time. To address this, we recommend defining clear responsibilities within the event team (e.g. person 1 is the main responsible for the online part of the event and person 2 for the physical part). We are aware that both parts are strongly interrelated but distributing responsibilities can help to focus and release stress. 

• Communication is key. Hybrid events are a new event concept and we can see that different players in the event business have different ideas and perceptions about what a hybrid event is. Therefore, it is important to share your vision with the stakeholders of your event to set clear expectations and to ensure that everyone knows what to do. If your participants and exhibitors know how to combine the online and offline world and understand how they can profit from virtual features when attending physically, the best results can be achieved. The following articles can be shared with your exhibitors and participants, or can be used to get inspiration on what and how to communicate: 

• Exhibitors
• Participants

• Make the QR codes available at the physical venue. The QR codes are the key to integrating the online venue with your physical venue. Therefore, having them displayed at the physical event space reminds the participants to use the online features. We recommend displaying the event QR code at the entrance and the stall QR codes at each stall. You can use the button "Print all QR codes" in your event overview to download all QR codes in one go. 

• Test the setup for live presentations before the event (optional). If you are planning to stream presentations that are held on the physical venue online, we highly recommend testing the setup -  before the event day. In that way, you can assure that the participants joining online have a good experience as well.