Last year we all scrambled to figure out how to host virtual galas, and this year we are on a new learning curve as we try to navigate Hybrid Events.
To plan Hybrid Events, we are taking the best practices we learned from a year of producing virtual events and finding ways to make it work in a hybrid setting with a live event.
In this post you will see a real hybrid event I did last week.
The view you are seeing are what the virtual audience saw from home. As you can tell this event was highly produced by Big Event Pros with a partnership with Ann Plans.
This was an event hosted at a private facility (the school’s very own field house) with 250 guests in attendance. Their normal event would be hosted in this same room but with 800 guests, so this felt very small to them. They had several watch parties viewing from different locations accounting for an estimated additional 400-500 virtual guests.
Below the video, I will cover what I thought went well and what I might improve on going forward because I want you to have access to best practices!
What went well:
So much went well at this event. If you watched to the end, you’ll know that this event grossed over $1,000,000 and our live auction was a hit! However, I will go over some of the things I thought this group did really well.
They started the event on time
Their producers made sure the event started on time. Dinner was served at 6:45 sharp so people had plenty of time to eat before program began at 7:30. For the virtual audience they had a preroll running 15 minutes before the event began and that countdown you see at the beginning of the video was shown right at 7:30.
They had a dynamic stage set up
The 40 foot screen behind the stage may feel huge for an audience of 250 guests, but it made the virtual show so much more dynamic. The screens also helped fill up the room. This event would have had 800+ guests on any other year, but this year they had 250 guests in the room and about 400-500 viewing from home or watch parties.
They encouraged watch parties
For the guests who didn’t attend in person, there were several options for watch parties. One watch party met at another venue with 100 guests in attendance and there were several other watch parties at people’s homes. This encouraged more competition and accountability for people to give. It also allowed people to save money on tickets which they spent on the auction and fund-a-need itself.
They had a plan to engage the virtual audience in the live auction
One thing that suffered with virtual events was the live auction because there is no way to create the momentum that an auctioneer creates in the room (If you go to 1:32, you’ll see me raise $50,000 with one fully donated item). In order to do a traditional live auction, we had to find a way to get the virtual viewers to be able to bid in real time. We did this with proxy bidders in the room. Virtual guests were instructed prior to the event and during the event to call a number to let the organization know they wanted to bid on a certain item, and our proxy bidders would call them just before we sold their item. You’ll notice I featured silent auction items to help fill time between each item to account for any delay. The virtual bidders would be on the phone the entire time and the proxy bidder bid on their behalf. It worked okay, but without having virtual bidders in the room I was unable to read their body language or directly communicate with them which made it more challenging to keep them in the auction. We had about 6 callers from the virtual audience of 400+, and only one item was sold to a virtual bidder.
The event was highly produced
I mean, just watch it. The floating camera work alone added to the production value of this event. They wanted to give it a professional feel like watching the Oscars and I think Big Events Productions and Ann Plans nailed it on the head. They really did a fabulous job with this event. It was engaging and easy to watch. This definitely came at cost due to extra equipment and staff required to put on this level of a production, but it allowed for the event to be extra engaging and if you watch, you can see how much money we raised from that room of 250, and if you do the math you will know that much more came from the virtual audience. So it was worth it to give them a show that was worth watching. This was the first hybrid event for this production team, so I’m sure if you asked them they’ll have some things they’d improve upon, but I’ll go ahead and say that they set the gold standard with this event.
What I would change:
Obviously this event went really well. We went above goal, it was their highest grossing live auction ever, they did very well and everything they did worked perfectly for this group. Keep all of that in mind as I share some things I would change. Suggestions will vary from group to group.
Shorten the program
I could almost hear your gasp when you looked the youtube video and saw that it was 2 hours long. I hear you! That’s nuts. One thing we learned from virtual events was how to get to the point with the programs. We had tight 30-40 minute programs and we would let them be on their way. I think the 2 hour long program worked for this particular audience, but I would not recommend this be the standard for every hybrid event going forward.
Ways to shorten a live program:
Have as many parts preproduced as possible. You saw the beginning video and the video just before the “Friends of Hill-Murray” (aka Fund-A-Need) were both preproduced, but to shorten it even more, they could have preproduced the acceptance of the presidents award to honor their recipient. Again, due to the nature of the recipient and that his family and legacy filled 25% of the room, it worked for this event.
Keep the live auction at the end of the program. They did this well. They got through the bulk of the program prior to the live auction so people who didn’t care about bidding on the live auction could log off if they wanted to. Another option is to not stream the live auction at all and just keep it for the audience in the room. You will notice that one of the items did sell to a virtual guest, so for them it was worth it and they made a couple thousand extra dollars by allowing the virtual audience participate.
Overall this event went very well
I always say there is no one size fits all solution for events, but they followed some best practices that allowed their event to be wildly successful. They also followed their gut with the length of the program and allowing their virtual audience to be involved in the live auction and it paid off. It is important to know your audience and talk to your event producer and auctioneer to ensure your event is just right for your donors.
