The Best Virtual and Hybrid Events in 2020 (and lessons in how to deliver better virtual events)
Virtual and hybrid events took centre stage in 2020. The event and experiential industry had to adapt quickly and develop engaging events quickly given the spate of cancellations. Creative, producers and tech were pushed to the max. And in the end we saw some fantastic results. We learned a few lessons too on how to deliver the best hybrid and virtual events.
Here’s a few of the lessons we learned:
Keep the audience engaged
Kids will walk into the room. Dogs will bark. The phone will ring. There are now endless distractions when an attendee is at your event. To keep audiences engaged, we must now layer interaction about every ten minutes — either a thought break, change of speaker, a poll interruption, or a breakout conversation. This may sound manic but when delivered well it is seamless and makes for a highly engaging event.
Tell a story
Designing a storyline for the event, assigning visuals, curating the most compelling content, and matching it to the most effective delivery method (web session, breakout, highly produced video, etc.) is paramount for an engaging experience.
Entertainment
Adding entertainment into virtual events is a must-have for longer or day on day content sessions. Boost your attendee’s energy levels with both announced and surprise entertainment, especially after lengthier presentations. Create moments of anticipation leading up to an event. A teaser mailer can be sent (including interactive gifts) pre-event and is especially important when an audience is remote.
MC
An experienced professional MC adds an anchoring effect to your event, guiding and reinforcing your story threads throughout multiple speakers, topics and themes. To create fully engaging events, imagine them as an interactive TV experience. And a moderator - with good broadcasting expertise - helps create a professionally produced, tightly executed event for your participants.
Networking
Virtual events are an entirely new way to network with peers in smaller-group discussions about business topics or fun social topics. Explore the possibilities rather than templating from your old live experience. Create special networking opportunities such as exclusive fireside chats with key company leaders or live Q&A sessions with each group and speaker.
Wellness Breaks
Schedule breaks that allow time to incorporate pauses throughout the day. These physical or mental breaks give attendees a chance to reset. Consider infusing wellness breaks like morning meditation, simple stretching, or yoga sessions to begin generating mindfulness behaviors that can benefit everyday life. And, as the day continues these can become more lively and can include live music, dancing and even a few drinks.
The most engaging virtual experiences all have thoughtful, curated content and the right technology solution. To begin, they must start with an experience design focus and engagement tactics that will motivate and inspire your audience.
Hopefully that will help you to deliver even better virtual and hybrid events in 2021 and beyond.
Here’s our favourite virtual and hybrid events from last year.
Tomorrowland Around The World
Tomorrowland debuted their Tomorrowland Around The World digital festival, and it’s safe to say it was a smash hit unlike anything ever done before. Located on the island of Pāpiliōnem, viewers were transported to a whole other world unlike anything they had ever visited before to party at familiar stages and some new ones. Revolutionising the digital festival space, the 3D technology along with the DJ performances made for something truly unforgettable, and now the numbers are in regarding the festival weekend.
First of all, over a massive one million people bought tickets and tuned in to the sets live. With people visiting from all over the globe (Japan, Mexico, Iceland, America and beyond) it felt like a real, in person version of the festival we all know and love with everyone united as one. Some people who had never got to experience the real festival just yet felt part of the Tomorrowland family for the very first time.
For each DJ to record their set, they were placed in a studio behind a green screen and managed to perform just like they would to a real crowd. To do this, four green screens in Belgium, Los Angeles, Sao Paolo and Sydney were set up and full-sized DJ booths were created. The sets were 6m or higher, at least 8m wide, and at least 8m in depth to recreate the big scale effect.
To get all of the different angles we saw during each electrifying set, up to 38 cameras were used (with 6 being ultra 4K HD). The digital 3D world of Tomorrowland Around the World has 10 times more polygons and lights compared to a modern computer game, and there were more than 750 virtual lamps per stage, all drawn by hand. In another impressive number, more than 300 TB (equal to 329.853.597.770.307 bytes) of raw footage was collected. Tens of different render engines worked for 4 weeks (and 24/7) to process all the immense number of data.
To get the festival ready in time, the team worked with over 200 experts to do what would normally take 2 years in just 3 months. Definitely one of the biggest things that has ever happened in the digital world this year, Tomorrowland worked extremely hard to ensure we could enjoy the festival to the fullest.
More details here
Zoomtopia
In March 2020, Zoom’s business made major strides as their videoconferencing platform stepped in as the champion of keeping our busy work and social lives active during lockdown. Which makes it rather befitting that Zoom didn’t miss a beat hosting their largest conference of the year, Zoomtopia over – you guessed it – Zoom. This virtual user conference explored how essential video-first unified communications are to the rapidly evolving workplace.
Here’s how Zoom made it happen
Apple WWDC 2020
Could Apple, whose slickly staged events have set a high bar for product unveilings, pull off a virtual keynote with the flourish and flair of its in-person extravaganzas and without the clapping crowds? Could Apple come up with a model for delivering product news that the rest of the industry might copy while we're in lockdown? Would reporters, investors and partners tune in and find something interesting to watch, without first being plied with gourmet pastries, vegan snacks and high-octane espressos brewed by Cafe Mac baristas?
The answer, judging by the reaction I've heard from developers, industry analysts, users and even many of us journalists who've also rushed for seats: Yep. And the virtual event may be the start of more to come.
In a one hour, 48 minute show mostly filmed at the Steve Jobs Theater at the company's headquarters in Cupertino, California, Cook and a cadre of executives talked about updated versions of Apple's key software. They demoed the new iOS 14 mobile operating system that powers its money-making iPhone, the latest iteration of the MacOS system software, dubbed Big Sur, and new software features for the Apple Watch, including an app that monitors when you're washing your hands to let you know if you've scrubbed them for long enough. Apple plans to dig deeper into each topic in sessions that are now available to the public.
"This will probably be the most effective WWDC Apple has ever had since it allowed them to bring in more developers than the 5,000 they can squeeze into a physical event," said longtime analyst Tim Bajarin of Creative Strategies, who has attended hundreds of Apple events. "In that sense, it was a highly successful format that meets the needs of Apple developers."
Thanks to CNET.com
NFL x Nickelodeon
If people tuned into the Chicago Bears vs. New Orleans Saints game on CBS, they may have missed all the slime. In a play for a broadcast aimed at a younger audience, the NFL aired the Wild Card matchup simultaneously on Nickelodeon, with its own announcers, goofy on-screen animations, and touchdown celebrations featuring SpongeBob SquarePants characters and, of course, green slime.
From the minute the game kicked off at 4:40PM ET to the second it ended, Nickelodeon’s broadcast was chaotic absurdity and a total delight. Whenever a player scored a touchdown, slime cannons would erupt in the end zone. Digital art, like clouds appearing at players’ feet or lighting across their chest, appeared often during replays. Nickelodeon stars — including 15-year-old Gabrielle Nevaeh Green — reported from the sidelines, making references to the network’s shows. Everyone involved seemingly embraced the utter silliness of it all.
Part of the novelty was the spectacle of it all; Nickelodeon doesn’t air NFL games (this was a special effort organized by ViacomCBS, which owns Nickelodeon) and its characters are so well known that seeing Squidward and Patrick Star emerge from a dog pile works across a number of different audiences. Part of it, however, is also a testament to how technology can do more than just enhance the visual quality of games — it can make them way more fun.
NFL games don’t have to be serious all the time. Nickelodeon proved there’s an excited audience, of kids and adults, who would take a little SpongeBob throughout the four quarters.
Twitch GlitchCon
Each year, content creators and fans from across the globe flock to TwitchCon, the world’s preeminent convention for gamers and streamers. However, with the pandemic continuing, Twitch was in search of a way to bring its community together for a singular experience that didn’t include a large public gathering. Enter GlitchCon.
The virtual replacement for TwitchCon Amsterdam in May and TwitchCon 2020 in September (both canceled due to the pandemic), GlitchCon was a 12-hour marathon live-streaming experience offering 425 Twitch creators across four separate virtual stages — /twitch, /twitchpresents, /twitchgaming, and /twitchrivals — live-streaming a wide variety of content.
GlitchCon proved an unqualified success, drawing more than 6.7 million viewers overall and maxing out at 175,000 concurrent viewers. Although the community was unable to unite in person at TwitchCon, GlitchCon helped fill the void by creating entirely new experiences. And, while the hope is, of course, to return to in-person TwitchCon in the future, the groundwork laid by Twitch over the past eight months has also paved a path for the future
You can read more here
We worked on hundreds of virtual and hybrid experiences in 2020 and here’s a look at one of our favourites…
Brown Thomas Breakthrough Beauty
We invited Brown Thomas customers to experience our Beauty Breakthrough – a must see series of Virtual Beauty Events with an exclusive list of masterclasses and tutorials from the best in the business. Viewers learned top beauty and skincare tips from industry experts as well as seeing first hand some of the new products available in store and online.
We developed a full virtual event platform for Brown Thomas to sell tickets to the events to customers. Tickets could then be redeemed online against the purchase of branded items specific to that event. This increased retail sales for the brand at a time when many retailers were closed.
Online make-up artists have a hugely loyal following and by partnering with the correct brand ambassadors we were able to deliver a unique experience for customers when they were stuck at home in a lockdown.
We worked with Jamie Genevieve, Katie Jane Hughes, James MacInerney, Keilidh Cashell, Nicole Faulkner and Fiona Leahy to deliver a series of virtual experiences that were a first of its kind in Ireland and the UK.
You can read more here.
Hopefully those examples will inspire you in your hybrid and virtual events journey.
- JD