October 2021
Case Study 15
“ WITH TECHNOLOGY PLAYING SUCH A KEY ROLE IN HYBRID EVENTS , CONVERSATIONS NOW INVOLVE BOTH MARKETERS AND CTOS .”
involved .
First up though , Cvent Event Cloud ’ s VP sales and marketing , Jamie Vaughan and Hospitality Cloud regional sales manager , Konrad Pant set the scene by detailing an evolved planner landscape featuring more focused contingency planning , the emerging role of the event technologist and new standards learned from broadcast .
Vaughan says : “ With technology playing such a key role in hybrid events , conversations now involve both marketers and CTOs . As a result , we ’ ve seen companies start recruiting event technologists to cover both disciplines and bring broadcasting skills to event marketing and management .”
Pant , who works with Cvent ’ s hotel supplier-base to help drive the recovery says : “ Venues and hotels are in a race to get hybrid ready and reassure planners on both the safety of in-person delegates and their capabilities for communicating to a virtual audience .
Edwardian Hotels London group AV and technical systems director , Kathryn Soave
ETP ’ s president Europe , Paul Hutton
“ 80 % of our 30,000-strong respondents to last year ’ s Cvent Planner Sourcing Survey told us that health and safety is now the number one priority when souring a venue so it ’ s vital that hotels communicate clearly , concisely and often .”
During the discussion on staging The Hybrid Dilemma : when virtual meets reality , event manager DeRizzio-Willis highlighted the logistical challenges of reassessing how much onsite space is now needed for camera set-ups , production desks , screens and back-stage crew . While Hutton stressed
Cvent ’ s event manager , Sabrina DeRizzio-Willis the importance of planners not getting bogged down in the technical aspects by using trusted partners .
Hutton says : “ The model has been around for a long time and is used successfully across sports and live music . Event planners need to rely our experience and expertise by partnering with a single point of contact who can put together a technical package that will support an event ’ s goals and objectives .
“ The bandwidth required is dictated by the number of remote speakers , streams and associated devices so only partnering with venues who have invested heavily in de-risking their connectivity will be a key planning decision .”
When asked what the appetite for hybrid events was amongst planners , Edwardian Hotels ’ Soave admitted that even before the coronavirus pandemic , there was a growing trend for virtual and broadcast elements that could reach a broader , more global audience .
This trend has only been accelerated by travel restrictions and will continue to be a factor as companies re-evaluate the desire and environmental impact of travelling to events .
“ We now just need to work out how to better engage the virtual audiences ,” Soave says . “ The expertise and the platforms are in place so the tactics and creative ideas will follow .”
Cvent ’ s next hybrid outing will be its European gathering of meetings , events and hospitality professionals , due to take place virtually from 5-6 October and in-person at the Intercontinental London - The O2 on 5 October .