Benefits of Reaching a Virtual Audience

Benefits of Reaching a Virtual Audience 

One of the main benefits of reaching a virtual audience is being able to target multiple markets at any one time. Virtual and hybrid events have incredible potential for growth in audience engagement. Live streamed virtual events can be attended by anyone from any location, allowing you to reach wider demographics and grow your overall customer base.

If you’re planning a live in-person event, incorporating a hybrid platform will allow you to increase your overall reach and gainmore attendees. Hybrid events combine both live and virtual event elements to create a unique and engaging experience while providing greater flexibility for your audience. Hybrid event models also help ensure that no one misses out on your amazing event due to travel or scheduling restrictions.

Broadcasting your live event via a virtual platform opens many doors by giving you the chance to connect with a larger audience than could ever be possible in person. A virtual audience is able to actively participate in your live event from their mobile devices or desktop computer in real time. They can be anywhere in the world and still attend and most importantly engage in your event. Virtual engagement tools you can incorporate in your hybrid events include live polls, Q&A sessions, and real-time audience chat for remote participants.

For event planners, corporate professionals, and business owners, it is important to understand the benefits of reaching a virtual audience and how to utilize virtual event components to enhance your overall attendee experience.

What are the Benefits of Reaching a Virtual Audience?

  • Target multiple markets at any one time
  • Expand reach to a global level 
  • Increase participant engagement with mobile accessible networking features
  • Provide greater flexibility for your attendees

Whether you’re hosting a virtual or hybrid event, there are several benefits of reaching a virtual audience. Successful event planners hire professional videographers to handle their virtual event video production to ensure a seamless production process and a polished presentation for the final event.

You can count on our professional video production team to:

  • Choose the right technology and virtual event platform to support the experience you aim to deliver
  • Handle all aspects of the live and virtual production including on-site audio/video requirements and remote speaker management
  • Deliver broadcast-quality content and provide support for A/V production

Feeding Matters 9th Annual Community Fundraiser Raised Over $200K Virtually!

Feeding Matters hosted their 9th Annual Community Fundraiser event in November and Team Haute was honored to produce their entire virtual event for the second year in a row! Reaching a virtual audience was a major benefit for Feeding Matters. The event reached a worldwide audience and raised over $200K virtually! 

Feeding Matters is a non-profit organization dedicated to supporting families who care for children with pediatric feeding disorder. Every year, Feeding Matters hosts a community fundraising event to raise awareness and help improve the system of care for pediatric feeding disorder.

Feeding Matters’ Annual Community Event unites families, clinicians, donors, and supporters to celebrate advances in PFD and raise much-needed funds to accelerate identification, ignite research, and promote collaborative care for children with PFD.

Hosting a virtual event allowed Feeding Matters to reach a global audience, some as far as South Africa, Italy, and Brazil! Attendees gathered virtually and were able to participate and communicate in real time via the live audience chat feature, allowing for a strong sense of community.

You can view the entire virtual event online at feedingmatters2021.hautephotovideo.com and to learn more about the work Feeding Matters is doing or to make a donation, please visit feedingmatters.org.

Reaching a virtual audience was a major benefit for Feeding Matters’ Annual Community Event and can make a strong impact on any event if done properly. 

Be sure to subscribe to our blog and newsletter for more great tips at HautePhotoVideo.com and contact us when you’re ready to start planning your next virtual or hybrid event!

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How To Optimize Your Hybrid Event

Hybrid Events

How To Optimize Your Hybrid Event

Learn how to optimize your hybrid event by following these pro tips!

A hybrid event combines a live in-person event with virtual online components. When it comes to planning a hybrid event, it is all about blending the “live” in-person and “virtual” digital channels to create a seamless shared experience for your entire audience. The following tips provide a great starting point to pave the way towards successful hybrid events.

Identify Your Event Goals 

Before you can begin to optimize your hybrid event, you should identify your goals and objectives. Start by determining your target audience, the event type/scope, and the type of design and engagement you are going for.

Identify the event type, size and experience you wish to create for your attendees – will you host a 30 minute webinar, a 1 hour single stream event, a full day event with breakout sessions, or even a 2-4 day event with multiple streams and sessions?

Choose The Right Virtual Event Platform 

Once you have determined your target audience and event goals, the next step is choosing the right technology and virtual event platform to support the experience you aim to deliver. In order to create an engaging experience for your both your “live” in-person attendees and your “virtual” remote participants, it is important to choose a virtual event platform that meets all of your needs. There are numerous event platforms that offer various digital features to engage your audience both on-site and online. 

When choosing your virtual event platform, a few components to look for include: 

  • High Quality Streaming Capabilities 
  • Custom Branding
  • Live Audience Engagement (i.e. Live Chat, Polls and Q&A) 
  • Social Hubs or Virtual Lobbies
  • Second Screen Capabilities
  • Ease of Use/User Friendly 
  • Data Analytics to measure the success of your event with advanced reporting

Second screens help bridge the gap between in-person and virtual audiences by encouraging cross-channel participation. The first screen at an event is the stage and main presentation screen. The second screens are your mobile devices (i.e. tablets or smartphones) that are used by audience members to see and interact with the presentation content. Second screens allow your audience to participate in presentation slide sharing, note-taking, polling, survey and Q&A participation, games, quizzes, and more!

Plan Your Production To Optimize Your Hybrid Event

After you have determined which event platform is best for you, it is time to starting planning and putting together all the pieces of your production. 

First, make sure you have assembled a professional media production team in order to handle all aspects of the live and virtual production including on-site audio/video requirements and remote speaker management. Give yourself the peace of mind in knowing you’ll have a team of professional to deliver broadcast-quality content and provide support for A/V production. Plus, as media professionals we can offer multi-location productions to bring speakers at various sites together in a single shared experience. There is never a reason to cancel sessions for presenters or panelists that cannot attend physically, we can bring them in remotely!

Next, choose a theme and determine what content you want to deliver.  Keep in mind, it is important to create a mix of live and on-demand digital content that is easy for viewers to find and follow. Offer a variety of content including welcome videos, keynotes, panels, and breakouts.

Incorporate audience engagement by enabling live chat, Q&A, polls and more to encourage your audience to interact and communicate with one another. You can engage an even larger audience by sharing your stream on your social media channels (i.e. YouTube, Facebook Live, LinkedIn Live, etc.) this will help you amplify your hybrid event by spreading the word and reaching a wider audience, allowing viewers from around the globe to tune in and participate!

Live chat tools allow your audience to interact from anywhere in the world. During our live broadcast of the Feeding Matters 8th Annual Community Event, the live audience chat was a fan favorite!

If you’re asking yourself how to optimize your hybrid event, follow these tips to help you prioritize your event framework and choose the right virtual platform that will allow your attendees to network with each other and optimize your overall event experience!

Be sure to subscribe to our blog and newsletter for more great tips at HautePhotoVideo.com and contact us when you’re ready to start planning your next hybrid event!

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How Desert Botanical Garden Created a Unique Hybrid Event Experience

Desert Botanical Garden hosted their annual Dinner on the Desert event on Saturday, April 24th, 2021 and for the first time integrated a virtual auction and drive-thru dining package, creating a unique hybrid event experience for their guests. 

Dinner on the Desert is always a magical event and we were thrilled to capture this year’s first-ever hybrid experience. Here are three key elements Desert Botanical Garden incorporated to create a safe and successful hybrid event.

Virtual Auction 

Prior to the live event, Dinner on the Desert supporters had the opportunity to register and participate in a week-long virtual auction, where guests were able to bid on distinctive plants, pots and garden art, plus one-of-a-kind experiences. Online auctions are not only a great way to promote your event but also to get your guests involved and raise money to support your cause!

Dine-In or Drive-Thru Dinner Package

On April 24, guests safely gathered at the Garden to celebrate Dinner on the Desert with Event Chair Sara Morgan & Executive Director Ken Schutz, friends, family and colleagues. Guests began the evening with cocktails, hors d’oeuvres and socializing with friends while exploring Exhibit Earth, a floral and plant installation by world-renowned floral designers, Natasha Lisitsa and Daniel Schultz of Waterlily Pond Studio, followed by an exquisite dinner in the Garden.

This year, Desert Botanical Garden offered guests two ways to share in this spectacular dinner event. Guests had the option to enjoy dinner in the Garden and those who preferred to dine at home had the opportunity to enjoy the cocktail party and exhibit, and then drive-thru the Schilling Events Plaza to receive a packaged four-course dinner to take home that included two bottles of wine and a parting gift.

Here’s a look at Earth, created by Natasha Lisitsa and Daniel Schultz of Waterlily Pond Studio.

Live Event Interaction 

Guest Portraits – As guests arrived, they had the opportunity to have their portrait taken at the Desert Terrace Garden with a beautiful backdrop of the Butte mountain. Portraits are a perfect keepsake your guests will love and have to remember your special event for years to come! 

Live Entertainment – After having their portraits taken, guests walked along Desert Discovery Trail while  enjoying cocktails, hors de oeuvres, and live music by He Said, She Said.  While viewing Exhibit Earth inside Dorrance Hall, guests enjoyed a live performance by Louis Landon and during dinner and dessert, performances by The Phoenix Symphony.

Desert Botanical Garden’s Dinner on the Desert hybrid event was a huge success and we can’t wait to see what the Garden has in store for next year! View all of the 2021 event photos at hautephotovideo.com and visit dgb.org to learn more about how you can support Desert Botanical Garden.

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What You Need To Know About Hybrid Events

As new event technology has emerged during the pandemic, you may be asking yourself — what is the difference between live, virtual, and hybrid events?

During a Live event, your attendees are all physically in attendance as opposed to a Virtual event where your guests view the entire event online. Hybrid events are what we like to call the happy medium, where some people attend in person while others watch online.

As more companies contemplate hosting a virtual event versus a physical gathering, now is the time to explore the benefits of choosing a hybrid model. Even as the COVID-19 vaccine becomes more readily available and live events start to make their comeback, hybrid events offer several benefits and will likely continue to play a huge part in the future events industry.

The Heard Museum hosted a beautiful hybrid gala event in celebration of their “Once in a Blue Moon” campaign, broadcasted live from the Museum’s brand new Blue Moon Garden! We captured the below photo of Campaign Committee Chairs, John and Janet Melamed after the Garden unveiling.

If you’re an event professional or business owner, there are a few key things to know when it comes to pulling off hybrid events.

Hybrid events combine both live and virtual event elements to create a unique, engaging and safety-conscious experience while providing greater flexibility for your audience.

Even before virtual events became the new normal, there were always people who would have loved to attend your event but couldn’t for one reason or another, travel being one of the bigger factors. By incorporating an online virtual component, hybrid events allow you to increase your overall reach and actually gain more attendees, ensuring that no one misses out on your amazing event.

Broadcasting your live event via a virtual platform opens many doors by giving you the chance to connect with a larger audience than could ever be possible in person. A virtual audience is able to actively participate in your live event from their mobile devices or desktop computer in real time. They can be anywhere in the world and still attend and most importantly engage in your event.

The virtual engagement tools you can incorporate in your hybrid events include live polls, Q&A sessions, and real-time audience chat for remote participants.

Let’s say your guests attending in-person are having a Q&A session with a speaker live on location, your online attendees can be viewing virtually and still participate by commenting directly via the live chat box. You can also host polls during your event that include both your live and online audience. This allows for even greater networking opportunities for your live and virtual attendees.

It is also important to include entertainment on location that both your live audience and virtual viewers can enjoy!

A few of our favorite entertainment elements include live bands and musicians, performers and entertainers such as magicians, artists, celebrity impersonators, and if you’re looking to really liven things up karaoke!

Heard Museum incorporated live music in their hybrid event and it is always a lovely added element to entertain your guests.

Another awesome benefit of hosting hybrid events is the ability to rewatch and share the livestream with your guests who may not have been able to attend or who simply want to relive the magic!

You can embed your entire event livestream on your website or even pull out certain clips to share on your social media channels. Plus, you can repurpose and share content from your livestream to market your business and promote future events. Having the recorded copy of your event also allows your speakers and sponsors who were a part of the stream to rewatch and see the live audience comments and interaction unfold throughout their presentations.

Check out this livestream recording below from the Feeding Matters virtual fundraising event and see how they incorporated a live audience chat for all of their attendees to interact in real-time.

You can view more videos at HautePhotoVideo.com and be sure to contact us when you’re planning your next hybrid event!

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