LEADERSHIP
Seoul Tourism Organisation has launched Virtual Seoul , a platform to host online meetings that in-person attendees can also join in during hybrid events ; and Radisson Hotel Group has partnered with Zoom to create a hybrid offering that combines the best of its in-person and virtual solutions and as part of its Hybrid Solutions .
“ I think business meetings and events will happen in clusters organised in a hybrid form with groups meeting in multiple locations and the groups connecting digitally ,” predicts Inge .
Highlighting the benefits of hybrid , she adds : “ A 300-person event , organised in several national clusters , had a 73 % carbon reduction and a 72 % reduction in time of all participants . These are the benefits of hybrid meetings built on key success factors like state-of-the-art digital and studio technology that companies like Radisson Hotel Group make available . This is the current way in which Meetings and Events are being organised , with the added benefit that more delegates can be reached .”
Hattendorf believes Asia-Pacific will be an interesting region to watch as recent research suggests APAC audiences are most open to digital innovation .
“ There is a stronger appetite for digital or hybrid events in Asia , with respondents more than twice as likely to have participated in such events than those from other regions . Visitors from Asia are significantly more likely to convert from attending a new event digitally to attending in person in the future – 64 % compared to 48 % from the rest of the world .”
Shah believes hybrid to be a great opportunity for dmg events and is embracing it . “ We are able to reach for our customers a truly global audience and the hybrid model also helps us tick the seamless experience box . We live in the age of ‘ connectivity now ’ – hybrid helps us do that .”
In the future , Hattendorf believes we will see the co-mingling of online and onsite , where online provides the pre-show , postshow , omni-channel year-long engagement to the tentpole onsite events and could account for up to 15 % of total revenues .
“ The business events sector , which supported nearly 26 million jobs and contributed US $ 1.5 trillion to global GDP in 2017 , can no longer operate in the exact same way as it did before ,” says Hattendorf . “ For a sector heavily dependent on physical interaction , the onset of the pandemic was a wake-up call for reinvention . Innovation will be key as business events gradually resume around the world . Industry players need to adopt a growth mindset , rethink their business offerings , redesign delegate experiences with safety at the core , and reassess how they engage with their teams .” businesschief . asia 47