Association Event Trends: Virtual and Hybrid conferences

Is your association event relevant?

If you could deliver it in January of 2020, it doesn’t fit today!

Attendee engagement expert Sarah Michel from Velvet Chainsaw, a conference improvement firm, joined Thom Singer and me on the Webinar Talk Show to talk about association event trends, the future of conferences, and how to provide value to members.

Key Points about association event trends:

• Don’t Cancel Your Event!  There is networking value in all meetings: in-person, hybrid, and virtual.
• Give people a reason to attend in real-time.
• Context is crucial to successful content. What was relevant in January is out of date now.
• Hybrid conferences are the future. We will have to stop using the term hybrid — they will just be conferences, meetings, or events. It is the way we will do meetings.
• Production wins over the technology platform.
• Meetings industry professionals need to be very skilled in virtual conferences to prepare for what comes next. If you don’t have your own events, shadow another professional.
• Emcees are essential in the virtual environment.
• A team of emcees are needed to facilitate engagement for multiple audiences: in-person, watch party, at-home.
• And so much more.

Thank you, Sarah, for joining us from your vacation and sharing your insights!

Links to Sarah Michel’s services:

• Speaking Website
• Velvet Chainsaw Consulting

Catch the Webinar Talk Show most Monday and Wednesday mornings at 11 am CT live on Facebook or watch all of our episodes on our YouTube Channel. We interview meeting industry professionals and share what’s effective and ground-breaking in virtual and hybrid meetings.