As 2021 draws to a close, the world is slowly but surely coming to terms with the global pandemic and accepting it as something we must learn to live with. 

Despite the stress of the last eighteen months, there have been a few positive outcomes. Working from home has forced many people to establish a healthy work/life balance, and technology has transformed the ways in which we interact within our personal and professional lives.

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Adapt, Innovate, Create

The virtual world is now thriving – with online conferences, webinars and events enabling a wider demographic to stay connected regardless of where they are.

Using the power of the internet, businesses have been able to adapt and innovate in ways they weren’t able to previously. We believe that this embrace of the digital world will be a permanent fixture across a wide range of industries, and that the future of events is very much hybrid – especially within the world of marketing.

Here at One Nine Nine, we had to embrace digital events pretty quickly – working with one of our clients to transition their event from in-person to online with just weeks notice. Read on to discover how during the peak of the pandemic we managed to turn a physical conference digital, and what the main benefits of a hybrid future are. 

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‍Operating Online - All Day Hey! Conference 

One of our clients, Hey! Is the North of England’s platform for the tech industry – running a regular schedule of inspirational panel talks, lectures and conferences. 

All Day Hey! Is the biggest event in their calendar and is a full-day conference for designers and front-end developers. The much-anticipated 2020 event was scheduled for May 7th 2020, but as the pandemic took hold – it became clear that running a physical, in-person event was both impossible and unsafe. 

With little over a month to go, the client made the decision to take the entire conference online – their first ever live streamed event which required a large number of ticket sales to make it a viable plan. 

Working alongside the Hey! Team, we managed to help them achieve their ambitious ticket-sales targets by more than 50%. This was done by delivering a digital marketing campaign which included creative assets, a revision of the original campaign and a combination of organic and paid social strategies. 

The event was a great success and was attended by more than double the maximum capacity of the original venue! 

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2021 – Hey! Goes Hybrid 

The continuation of the lockdown into 2021 meant that once again, they unfortunately couldn’t run an in-person event again. However – with a little help from ourselves, they successfully ran it as a hybrid, hosted events with the presenters in the studio and accompanying talks online.

Hey! has plans to run future, hybrid events which are a combination of in person and online, complete with a live audience whilst delivered a dull digital experience for remote attendees. This has huge benefits in terms of reach, sales and growing the brand.

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How Going Hybrid Can Help Your Business

Whilst physical events satisfy the need for face-to-face interaction, taking a hybrid approach to how your business runs can drive its growth and development. 

Going hybrid adds an extra dimension that augments and enhances the experience. Offering the option to attend online or watch a recording of a in physical event expands your business’s reach by allowing a greater demographic of people attend.

Similarly, the addition of things such as live chat discussions, recaps and supplementary audio and text recordings to live presentations can add clarity to concepts, increase accessibility, and encourage audience participation and collaboration amongst delegates.

How We Can Help

We are a full-service marketing industry led by a team with decades of experience supporting clients in every industry.

To find out how we can help your business to plan, promote and deliver effective online or hybrid events, please get in touch with our team on 01138 444 111 or email us at contact@oneninenine.agency.