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to change their registration at late notice , with no penalty to them , and switch to online only . In the final week before Hybrid Events Ignited , we had 10 people email us directly to say that they would like to change their in-person registration to be an online registration instead .”
The same can happen with speakers as well , as Tulloch explains : “ Of the 18 speakers , 11 confirmed to attend in person but the day before the event , two in-person speakers requested to swap to speaking virtually . This was disappointing for the New York hub as it meant we only then had three speakers attend in-person .
“ This is something planners should think about because having speakers present in-person definitely gives an event more energy . It ’ s worth indicating on the website whether a speaker is attending in-person or virtually .”
Samme Allen was engaged as the event moderator approximately three months before the
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event .
“ We effectively had Allen owning engagement and Tulloch owning content - having two people protecting the integrity of each of these crucial aspects was certainly a worthwhile investment ,” Lovatt says . “ At this point we identified that it was extremely important to have an in-person panellist physically present in both locations during every single session . This highlighted a small challenge to remedy as we had
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a single session with no in-person speaker present in the New York hub . We made the decision to hire a sub-moderator to support Allen in her efforts as key moderator of the event .”
Naomi Claire Crellin from Story Craft joined as sub moderator and was present throughout the entire event , on-stage in New York .
Rehearsals
Approximately two weeks
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before the event , the panellists for each session came together online to discuss the details of their session , find out who was presenting from where and cover any technical questions that they had .
Not only did these sessions enable the panellists to get to know one another , it also enabled Allen and Crellin to get a sense for who may be contributing in different ways - giving Glisser the intelligence to leverage the platform engagement tools to enhance the sessions and make them more meaningful experiences , wherever the audience would be sitting .
“ We were able to layer in the use of the platform at this late stage as we know the Glisser platform inside out ,” Lovatt says . “ We would recommend planners start planning this sooner in their event planning cycle - say three to four weeks out - so that team members have plenty of time to build and test these tools .”
To accommodate for the timezone difference between London and New York , Glisser had the New York venue production crew from NMR Events set-up on the Friday before so that everything was physically ready for them to be able to commence rehearsals first thing Monday morning New York time , which was the afternoon of Monday , London time .
“ The timezone was a significant challenge with the rehearsal times and not one to be underestimated , especially with specified venue operating times ,” Lovatt says . “ It is inevitable that unexpected challenges will present themselves during the rehearsals - this is the entire reason for rehearsals - and
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