While you might think the point of most events is to target prospects, there is one type that focuses primarily on individuals who already enjoy your products or services.

That’s right: it’s user conferences.

Read below to learn about user conferences, why they’re important, and how any event organizer can host a successful one.

What Are User Conferences?

As we’ve said, user conferences are events that are specifically created for existing customers.

Typically, these conferences focus on helping attendees familiarize themselves with your brand and deepen their understanding of your offerings.

Don’t mistake user conferences with trade shows or product launches. Although they share similarities with these events, user conferences have key differences that set them apart.

User conferences are primarily about an audience and products that are already there. They’re not really about attracting new business—their main focus is to build on established relationships.

Why Are User Conferences Important?

Now that we have an idea of what user conferences are, let’s talk about why you’d want to host one.

User conferences are an incredible way for your business and customer base to mutually strengthen the bond you have together. Not only do they allow you to learn more about your attendees, they also let your attendees learn more about you and what your business is all about.

Another benefit to hosting a user conference is the networking opportunities it provides. Giving your customer base a place to connect with other people using your products or services fortifies the support that every business needs to thrive. For example, if new users or prospects are in attendance, this type of event lets your brand-loyal attendees do some of the marketing for you.

Apart from relationship-building, user conferences add value to your products. They’re events that make time and space available to discuss insights regarding your offerings or announce incoming products and updates.

To recap, user conferences are important because they:

Increase brand awareness and accessibility mid- and post-event
Encourage networking among new and existing customers
Add value to existing products by offering exclusive information to improve a customer’s engagement and satisfaction with products

Your How-To Guide: Organizing User Conferences 101

So you’re ready to schedule a user conference. But what’s the best way to go about organizing one? Follow our steps below to find out.

1. Concept Your User Conference Strategy

A user conference is only as good as its strategy, which is why your first step should be thinking long and hard about how you want to organize your event.

Consider the following to build your event strategy to the fullest:

Who are you targeting at this event? Creating detailed personas of your existing customer base will help you know which segments to include and not include during your event.
What are you doing at this event? From inviting speakers to product demonstrations and giveaways, you need to loosely plan out every segment of your event in advance to know what you’ll need to have things run smoothly.
Where are you going to have this event? Although many event marketing pros will suggest hosting live events because of the value of face-to-face interaction, it’s still possible to have a stellar user conference in a virtual or hybrid model. Decide which one will be right for your brand and audience.
When are you going to have this event? Knowing how much time you’ll have between conception and execution will help you manage projects accordingly.
How much are you willing to spend on your event? Getting a firm budget together before making big moves will ensure you don’t push against your financial boundaries.
Why are you organizing this event? Clearly defining your goals will help you select the best KPIs and data to track during your event.

2. Create Your User Conference

Once you’ve got your event strategy down, it’s time to start bringing it to life.

First things first: you’re going to need to create an identity for your event. An event identity is all about giving your event a look, tone, feel, and story that communicates your brand to your audience. The tiniest logo to the largest AV display will contribute to this identity, so make sure you consider every detail possible.

Next, design the right content for your audience. Since user conferences are about existing customers and businesses coming together, make sure your event allots time for customer- and brand-focused content.

To know what content to include, you’ll need to have a good idea of what segments will make their way into your event’s schedule. Some you could include are (but aren’t limited to):

Product giveaways, which allow you to build brand loyalty with your customers by having them try out add-on implements or entirely new products for free.
Keynotes, which allow stakeholders or team members in your company to talk about the wider significance of your products or services.
Customer testimonials, which allow attendees who enjoy your brand the opportunity to share what your products mean to them in the context of their own lives.
Q/A Sessions, which allow customers to engage directly with your brand and its representatives to learn more and/or express their opinions about your products or services.
Group Fireside Chats, which allow attendees to get to know each other and build a sense of how they all relate to one another and your brand.

Once you know the rough event plan, you can start planning logos, videos, signage, displays, audio, stages, lighting arrangements, and other compelling content integrations.

3. Conduct Your User Conference

Keep the tips and tricks below in mind to ensure your event runs smoothly from start to finish!

Communicate with users pre-, mid-, and post-event to increase your capture rate and monitor event satisfaction.
Troubleshoot your event multiple times to detect any pitfalls and build buffers into your event plan where needed most.
Integrate event technology, including event videos or live streams, into your event to ensure your virtual, hybrid, or live audience gets the best sensory experience possible.
Prepare keynote speakers extensively beforehand so they know how to captivate your audience from the get-go.
Work with a multimedia event agency like OVATION to help ensure your event is one to remember.

Contact us today to schedule your discovery call. For more event expertise, check out our blog. To see what we can do event-wise, preview our latest work.

What do you get when you cross a virtual event with a live event? A hybrid event.

Okay, we know: that answer was painfully obvious (and unfunny to boot)—but hybrid events are no joke. When your hybrid model consists of one event presented in front of two separate audiences, it’s hard not to take things a little seriously.

Piquing (and keeping) the interest of online and on-site audiences can be tough. That’s why businesses serious about hosting successful hybrid events know they need to invest in killer live streaming production services.

Not sure where to start? How about here? Keep reading to learn how to start live streaming at your next hybrid event.

What Is Event Live Streaming?

We can’t tell you how to utilize live streaming services without first telling you what those services are all about.

Event live streaming is the process of simultaneously recording and transmitting video coverage of a live event to a virtual audience. Big emphasis on “simultaneously” here: streams are typically broadcast in real-time to give viewers at home the same in-person experience.

In the event world, live streams are the lifeblood of hybrid events. When done well, they expand the reach your event can have and, more importantly, help keep your virtual audience engaged.

Luckily, live streaming isn’t rocket science. To do it well, you just have to do it right—and we’re the hybrid event agency that can show you how.

Event Live Streaming 101: Your How-To Guide

Ready to start live streaming? Not so fast: there are a few steps you should take before even thinking about going live. Follow the following 5-step guide to learn the basics of event live streaming.

STEP 1: Envision Your Event

Good hybrid events aren’t random hybrid events. With two audiences to keep in mind, passively setting up a live stream and hoping for the best is not going to work out. Your virtual audience matters as much as your in-person attendees, which is why you need an event strategy in place to keep their unique viewership top-of-mind.

First, establish your event identity. Who is your brand at this event and what do you want to accomplish there?

Next, consider your audience. How can you shape your event to make every viewer, whether sitting at a convention center or behind a computer screen, feel connected to your brand?

Answering these questions and creating a hybrid event plan will ultimately make completing the next steps much easier.

STEP 2: Pick Your Platform

Live streaming is a huge industry these days. The good news is that there are plenty of live stream platforms to pick from. The bad news? It can be hard to know which one will work best for your hybrid event.

Your first instinct may be to default to one of the big(ger) names in live streaming. Don’t get us wrong: Zoom and the ubiquitous social media “Live” platforms all have great things going for them. Unfortunately, no platform out there is created equally—and each one has its limitations.

For that reason, we suggest working with a hybrid event agency that specializes in live streaming production services (hint hint). Odds are, they’ll come equipped with their own proprietary or partnered virtual platform, which will give you the most flexibility when it comes to designing and personalizing your event experience.

Step 3: Customize Your Content

With the insights gained in Step 1 and the platform acquired in Step 2, it’s now time to start telling your hybrid event’s story with customized live stream content.

When live streaming, you should especially gear your visuals towards remote attendees. Because they have the option to check out and click off within a matter of seconds, you have to think creatively to maintain their attention.

Need some content ideas? Have your live streaming production services implement:

Virtual-Friendly Video Capture: Multiple cameras and angles, dynamic lighting, and time-sensitive video sessions can all keep your virtual audience visually stimulated by your live stream.
Graphics, Graphics, Graphics: Personalized design, including logos, text, overlays, animations, and more, seamlessly breaks up streamed content and ramps up connectivity between remote viewers and your brand.
Share Your Screen: Make online attendees feel like they’re really part of the action by weaving in poll, Q&A, shout-out, live chat, and breakout room segments to promote greater interaction with in-person participants during your live stream.
Built-In Breaks: Avoid scheduling too many live sessions back-to-back by incorporating intermittent brain breaks using holding slides and bumper videos.

Step 4: Test Your Tech

Before rolling out your hybrid event’s live streaming production services, take some time to give your streams a trial run.

Even during run-throughs, live streaming can get tricky if you don’t have the right technical know-how. From equipment to encoding and embedding, you need to make sure you know what you’re doing before your stream starts.

Don’t be nervous. Work with a hybrid event agency instead. If they’re truly certified experts in live streaming services, their teams will be able to offer you:

Pre-event testing like broadcast tests, Internet tests, and rehearsals of both live and virtual components (i.e., live streams) to avoid pitfalls mid-event
Audiovisual chops to set equipment up correctly, manage recordings, curate live displays, and roll out virtual content features
Analytics finesse to interpret raw data as it comes in to pivot virtual proceedings as necessary
Dual team support with bothon- and off-site roles to handle live and virtual issues as they arise

Step 5: Start Your Stream

Once you’ve completed Steps 1-4, you’re free to start live streaming. Don’t forget: a full-fledged live stream is only as good as its prep, so make sure you take time to integrate yours the right way.

Don’t have much stream self-esteem? Enter: OVATION. We’ve been a hybrid event agency for over ten years and an event production agency for even longer. We’re a team of dreamers, innovators, problem-solvers, and techies that, together, will help you create incredible (and streamable) event experiences.

Contact us today to schedule your discovery call. For more event expertise, check out our blog. To see what we can do event-wise, preview our latest work.

Do you have a hybrid strategy in place?

As fall event planning ramps up, does your plan include a hybrid strategy? If not, now is the time to get one in place – and fast! A recent study by Northstar Meetings Group reveals 82 percent of event planners will hold live meetings this year. In addition, more than a third of respondents plan to accommodate both in-person and virtual audiences. There’s no denying that hybrid events have gained significant traction. As companies continue to announce their return to live events, a majority of these events will leverage a hybrid approach.

We’ve had several discussions with customers and partners surrounding the hot topic of hybrid events. As a result, here are some of the common questions we’re hearing: “What resources do I need to support a hybrid event?”, “How much does it cost to produce a hybrid event?” — and more importantly, “How do you measure hybrid event success?”

Lucky for you, we’re here to help tackle some of the mystery behind the unknown world of hybrid events, starting at the very beginning – developing a hybrid strategy.

Your Hybrid Strategy: Piecing Together the Puzzle

Let’s talk strategy. In the hybrid world, it’s all about defining your audience, both live and virtual, identifying key areas of impact, and uncovering opportunities for engagement.

As you develop your hybrid strategy, you’ll want to acknowledge the following key pieces of the puzzle:

Define how you’ll measure success. Every event is unique and has its own set of goals. Your goals may vary from audience attendance and pipeline growth to sponsorship engagement and interactivity. Clearly defining your key event objectives is the first step to success.

Map out your attendee journey. Remember this is one event with two distinctly different attendee types – live and virtual. Each must be paid special attention to ensure their full engagement. To map out your attendee journey, first identify and chart key impact moments from the event’s beginning to end. For instance, highlight areas where you can use tactics that enable both audience types to maximize their connections, learning, and engagement. These tactics may include pre-event communication, content created uniquely for each group, and video-on-demand created to extend the conversation.

Determine your hybrid event budget. A hybrid event encompasses the live and virtual experience and requires specific resources to enable this connection effectively. Here are five things to consider when assessing your hybrid event budget:

Project Pre-Production and Planning
Content Strategy and Execution
Virtual Event Platform Assessment and Implementation
Live Event Production
Virtual Event Production

Each of these areas are fundamental to the execution of a successful hybrid strategy.

When it comes to hybrid event production, there’s a lot to discuss and consider. The good news is you don’t have to navigate the complex unknown alone! Let’s work together to create a winning hybrid strategy. Connect with our team of event experts to discuss your next event.

Demystifying hybrid event budget requirements

Once your hybrid strategy is in place, next you’ll need to confirm your hybrid event budget and requirements. Don’t forget that a hybrid event combines live and virtual experiences, so you’ll need to think with both an event planning and communication path mindset. In the world of hybrid, the goal is to strategically make two different audience types feel like part of one connected experience.

Solving the Puzzle

In our thirty years of event production experience, it’s safe to say we’ve seen a thing or two. Most companies roll hybrid event costs into a larger event budget. To save yourself some trouble, separate the costs so you can easily identify where you received the most business value.

Here are five hybrid event budget cost areas to consider:

Program Planning and Pre-Production
Content Strategy and Execution
Virtual Platform Assessment
Live Event Production Requirements
Virtual Event Production Requirements

Program Planning and Pre-Production

Use this time to identify essential resources and pre-event communications needed to support your overall event objectives. During the initial program planning and pre-production stage, focus on determining creative design requirements, assessing virtual platform options, scheduling site visits, and securing keynote speakers.

Content Strategy and Execution

This is where your brand and message intersect to confirm how you’ll tell your story. You can use your event to share information through videos, product demonstrations, live and pre-recorded presentations.

PRO TIP: Encourage your virtual attendees to participate in your event theme or messaging by requesting submission of video content. These videos can connect to a theme, an idea, or action and can be incorporated into event media and social media channels. Here are more compelling types of content you can use to increase virtual attendee engagement.

Virtual Platform Assessment

If audience engagement is a key objective, selecting the right virtual platform shouldn’t be taken lightly. The platform is your connection point to the virtual audience – and these days, there are seemingly endless options!

The costs for a virtual platform can vary greatly based upon functionality, interactivity, analytics tracking, and reporting. Again, here is where leaning into your hybrid event strategy is critical. Engagement and interactivity are key and can drive your platform selection, along with price! For smaller scale, one-day virtual meetings, virtual platform pricing can range anywhere from $4,000 to $20,000. Larger scale events typically fall between $20,000 to $75,000, according to MeetingsNet. These are events that include keynote presentations, a general session, and multiple speaking tracks.

PRO TIP: Look for an all-in-one event platform that offers registration and ticketing, event check-in, live engagement and networking, sponsorship and exhibitor management, data analytics, and post-event reporting.

Live Event Production Requirements

Venue-specific or regional regulations will inform design opportunities and attendance numbers. From a hybrid perspective, you’ll need to consider unique ways to bring the virtual audience into the ballroom. This is achievable through multiple camera views. A dynamic mainstage with great site angles and sound is key – and never underestimate the power of lighting to drive impact.

PRO TIP: Punctuality is key – you must run your sessions on time to ensure a seamless connection between your live and virtual audience. Having an experienced live event production team on-site will help keep things on track.

Virtual Event Production Requirements

Connecting live to virtual is what production solves. Thinking like TV, enabling multiple camera views, keynote interviews from the show floor, remote presenters streamed with TV-like graphics are all examples of high-impact virtual production outcomes.

PRO TIP: Streaming and production services will likely be your largest costs, amounting to more than 50 percent of the total budget on average.

Hybrid Event Stage to Virtual Experience

When you spread attendees across multiple locations, new technology elements force changes in our method of communication. Different communication and participation environments for content delivery and collaboration are created.

Have more questions on building out a hybrid event budget? We’re happy to help. Contact us and one of our event experts will be in touch to get the conversation started.

With the CDC’s latest COVID-19 guideline updates, event leaders will soon be (if they aren’t already) planning more hybrid meetings, or meetings with a mix of in-person and virtual attendees. While many organizations have been holding hybrid meetings for the last several years, experts are still trying to figure out how to accommodate the varying needs of their audience.

So, whether your audience has a seat in front of the main stage, or they are viewing from the comfort of a home office, here are some tools of the trade to keep in mind as we start to see the demand for hybrid meetings and events pick up.

Invest in a virtual platform

If you’re relying on Zoom or Microsoft Teams to support the virtual component of your event, it may be time to explore other virtual hosting platforms if your end goal is to grow audience engagement. That said, virtual platforms come in all shapes and sizes, each offering its own level of flexibility and customization options. For those making their first investment in a virtual platform, creativity and flexibility in design are often overlooked. You’ll want to find a solution that gives you the flexibility to customize your brand and messaging for different event types.

PRO TIP: Before you invest, check to confirm the platform can customize the attendee experience with things like personalized schedules and agendas.

Hire an event production agency

The role of event production has changed as producers now have to oversee new components like platform build and technical requirements needed to support a virtual environment. If you’re lucky enough to have internal resources, the sky is the limit! Unfortunately, most companies don’t have the luxury of having an in-house production team.

PRO TIP: When looking for an event production partner, be sure to find someone who is capable of overseeing rehearsal runs, managing recordings, setting up and tests for broadcast quality and an internet connection, and can help manage features like polling, slide transitions, and other visuals.

Showcase your virtual audience

Have a big screen behind your main stage? Use it to showcase as many of your remote attendees as possible! If some don’t feel comfortable being live on camera, provide an option for them to submit a photo. Adding this level of personalization reminds the presenter or emcee that they have another audience to interact with.

PRO TIP: Note that Zoom supports up to 49 members in gallery view. To accommodate a larger audience, you may want to consider a virtual platform solution or a custom built platform tailored to your specific needs.

Create digital experiences

With two different attendee types, event leaders will need to think outside of the box when it comes to keeping the virtual audience engaged. Attendees are expecting a different experience from virtual events – live panel discussions and PowerPoint presentations aren’t going to cut it. The right content elements organized and delivered in the right way create a perfect union between the event and its virtual audience.

PRO TIP: Use this as an opportunity to explore new ways to create highly compelling product demonstrations with prospective customers. There are several product tour software tools worth exploring!

Planning your next hybrid meeting

Are hybrid meetings part of your future event strategy? We’ve helped several companies evolve their event experiences. We’d love to help yours too. Schedule a discovery call and let’s discuss your next hybrid meeting!

The Hybrid Event Model’s 4 Key Components

You’re probably familiar with what a hybrid event is, but do you know what it takes to execute hybrid events in a way that creates a meaningful experience for both virtual and live attendees? Creating a noteworthy hybrid event experience requires event planners to be involved in the event’s overall brand messaging, content, technology, and logistics.

Before you commit to a hybrid event, it’s important to understand the key components that make up the hybrid event model as it exists today and how they influence your overall plan.

Strategy Development

As you begin the planning process, develop an event business plan to help you focus on the event’s purpose and goals. Once you’ve shared this plan with key internal stakeholders, you can use it as a strategic roadmap. Here are some things you’ll want to include:

Event Objectives: Whether the goal is to expand reach to a broader audience or generate revenue, a clearly defined event objective will help you keep the focus on prioritizing deliverables that support the end goal.
Event Budget: As we navigate this new world of hybrid events, you need to be able to identify the expected value of your event, including your revenue stream and losses. How will the event be paid for? Identify income stream opportunities such as ticket and exhibition space sales, funding, grants, and sponsorship.
Audience Analysis: Before you can dive deep into content development for your event, you’ll need to have a clear idea of exactly what your audience looks like. For hybrid events, you need to consider in-person, virtual and on-demand attendees (if offering access to content after the event – which we highly encourage!)

PRO TIP: Each of these attendee types will have different expectations. For in-person attendees, details like lighting, sound, stage design and onsite visuals will influence the overall experience. Virtual attendees will be more impacted by connectivity quality, on-screen content, animations and seamless transitions. If you map out the needs and experiences of these attendees ahead of time, you’ll save yourself a lot of last-minute fire drills.

Pre-Production

Pre-production planning begins once your event strategy and plan are in place. Consider the various digital touchpoints for your attendees before, during, and post-event. This is the time when you’ll want to clearly identify the various roles needed to support your hybrid event. These key players will have a big impact on event execution and bringing your content vision to life.

Speaking of content, event planners often miss out on opportunities to use content to generate excitement leading up to the event. Pre-event communication is your time to shine and get creative.

Here are some ways to generate excitement leading up to your hybrid event:

Conduct a quick pre-event poll to find out what attendees are looking forward to and encourage participation. This gives you quick results so you can take appropriate actions on what you may have missed.
Announce the launch of a new product or that you have an exciting keynote speaker people will be thrilled to hear and watch.
Create educational and fun videos to define event topics or goals. Share these short videos socially to give prospects and attendees a sneak peek at event topics and speaker lineup.

Other items to focus on during pre-production include speaker selection and briefing. In today’s world, event speakers need to be able to engage both in-person and virtual attendees. Choosing the right speakers will make or break the success of your event. While some may be familiar with presenting on stage, encourage your speakers to rehearse in advance so that they feel comfortable acknowledging your online audience and looking at the camera.

On-site Event Production

Ah, finally…the moment we’ve all been waiting for! Live event day. Whether broadcasting from the main stage in a ballroom or shooting in a studio, this is the moment when you’ll work with your hybrid event team to ensure all the logistics are tested and in place to enable smooth connectivity from the live event presentation to the virtual event platform.

The key to hosting a successful hybrid event is to ensure your virtual attendees are provided an engaging experience that feels like they are viewing a TV-like broadcast.

Here are just a few items that you’ll need to consider in order to pull this off:

Stage set up
Presentation rehearsals
Lighting (appropriate for in-room and camera capture/stream)
Event décor and fabrics
On-site AV production and streaming solutions (you’ll need multi-mics and stream support to virtual)
HD cameras (you’ll need more than one for switching, playback and recordings)
Custom livestream graphics
Internet connectivity
Venue logistics
Team and content coordination

Do you see why having the right team in place is essential to hybrid event success? This list just scratches the surface! (hint: this is when that technical director becomes your new BFF)

Post-Event Production

Whew! That’s a wrap. Your first hybrid event was a huge success and attendees are raving about the quality of content and overall experience. In fact, they are already asking when your next hybrid event is taking place. Congratulations! But before you pack your beach bag for a well-deserved vacation, there’s still work to be done. Post-event production is a great time to continue the conversation with attendees and show prospects what they missed. It also provides an opportunity to take a deeper look at event metrics to see how you stacked up against your goals.

Here are some post-production tips to get you closer to that beach vacation:

Make sure post-event content is available
Email outreach sharing the content with attendees
Promote the event on social channels highlighting access to on-demand recordings
Prepare and review post-event metrics

Now that you’re familiar with the four key components of a hybrid event model and the various items that need to align for it to take place, you should have a better idea of how they can work for your company.

Want further insight into what hybrid events are and how they can be used? Contact us today and speak with one of our event experts!

An Event Organizer’s Guide to User Conferences