How have you seen customers handle separate audience groups differently in order to build leads ? The advantage of being a venue is that we ’ ve seen first-hand the evolution from in-person to fully virtual and then a blend of the two from October 2021 . Belfast has always offered a relatively small audience catchment for live events but with the onset of hybrid , planners have been able to grow the virtual audience and develop global leads from an expanded online reach . Those in-room delegates have been able to shake hands , share a laugh and build a common bond . For them , it ’ s relationship building first with lead follow-up post event to discover their thinking and assessment . With an online audience it ’ s the other way around . You know how they ’ ve interacted with the content during the event so you can establish how engaged they were . The relationship building needs to therefore be the focus of the follow-up . Don ’ t let your sales teams treat these two audiences the same .
Do you think hybrid is now here to stay ? Absolutely , it ’ s not going anywhere . Several clients who were adamant that they wouldn ’ t go hybrid due to the additional cost are now realising that it would be an opportunity lost and they ’ re asking us to re-quote . I ’ d say 95 % of our venue customers are now adding virtual elements into their in-person events .
The only way to turn online audiences into prospects and leads is to fully engage them . Why is this so difficult for so many planners ?
A lot of it is driven by fear . We ’ ve seen grand designs for engaging online audiences get scaled back due to a lack of confidence or planning time . That ’ s why we specify that we don ’ t want to be a live streaming venue . We don ’ t want spectator audiences , we want them involved and interacting with online moderators and speakers broadcasting from our greenscreen studio space . To ensure leads come from hybrid content you need to invest in engagement tools such as polls , gamification , and seeded chat questions for both
Lead generation
ICC Belfast ’ s head of technical production , Dave Young discusses delivering great leads from in-person and online audiences
in-person and online audiences . Complex agendas can be distracting so keep it simple , signpost delegates to where you want them to go and treat the in-person and online event experience as two different formats .
How does data help build hybrid event leads ? Badge scanning at an exhibition can be a waste of time as people are often too polite to decline having their barcode scanned . With online however , you can see who has logged-in to which session and importantly , you can assess their interest and engagement by analysing their poll answers , submitted questions and other actions on the platform . These data touch-points should also include in-person audiences at hybrid events by asking delegates to submit questions through the platform ’ s mobile app and using polls during both on-stage and online content presentations .
How should these data points be followed-up post event ? Historically , sales teams would end-up with anecdotal feedback post event , which would often drive their follow-up . Now , you can really see prospects and hot leads in the data . There should a sales directive in place to prioritise certain data points which then translate into leads . It could be the top 30 % of people who answered a certain poll question or those who attended the most sessions .
Keep it simple , don ’ t overload with data points and focus on a balance of great in-person and online experiences that don ’ t have to mirror each other . However you determine engagement , there ’ s now the increased opportunity to take the anecdotal , layer on the hybrid data and then prioritise who to follow-up on for a more effective result .