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Rachel Edwards
- Hybrid without a Hitch
Knowledge Base
Hybrid without a Hitch
Blending the best of live and virtual events for an internationally engaging experience
The Challenge
Rotary District Governor Elect Vicki Zimmerman and her committee sought to unite the district with a robust, engaging, and educational Annual Conference featuring concurrent sessions, international speakers, and multiple panels participating both virtually and in-person. Planning the most substantial and vigorous agenda in the history of the event, coupled with both live and remote participants was significant.
Understanding the limitations of Zoom’s software and that the bandwidth of both her and her volunteers were limited, Zimmerman knew she needed a trusted partner to run an event of this scale.
Zimmerman needed a team that could coordinate an international conference, find innovative technology to host the event and train participants, market the event, and blend the in-person and virtual experience to maximize engagement. Knowing the depth and quality of Intrada’s work, Zimmerman chose Intrada.
The Solution
Planning the Event: To best organize and build an engaging conference featuring a live stage, international speakers, concurrent sessions, and seven panel presentations, the Intrada Technologies’ team quickly learned the goals, assessed needs and stepped up to fill in the gaps. Developing timelines, marketing and communication objectives, a production schedule and anticipated technology needs, the team designed a comprehensive plan and got to work.
A website was specially developed and written for the event. Pre-event marketing counsel, event timelines and copy were carefully crafted. An event script and an A/V script were written, rehearsed and edited. Graphics, video and music were created and gathered. Everything was carefully coordinated with special attention to detail to attract and retain attendees, prevent virtual “dead air” during the event, and increase engagement throughout the event.
Promoting the Event: To support Zimmerman’s efforts to garner the largest attendance possible, Intrada put together a focused marketing plan. Communications and copy were carefully crafted and pushed out utilizing Intrada’s custom timeline to hit the right pulse points and garner the desired actions.
Testing, Training and Supporting the Tech: To orchestrate this robust, international hybrid event, Intrada’s team selected Hopin, a well-regarded, effective and budget-friendly event hosting platform.
Ensuring all participants felt confident presenting and using the platform was vital. The Intrada team created a Hopin 101 guide, developed a Hopin Tutorial page on the website, and conducted multiple training and support sessions for speakers and key participants.
To maintain the focus on the experience and presentation, Intrada’s technical support worked behind the scenes in every aspect of the event. From help desk and troubleshooting assistance prior to the event to optimized on-site networks and WiFi connections and live tech support throughout the conference, no technology detail was overlooked.
To extend the District Conference’s reach, Intrada streamed important portions HD on Facebook and YouTube. Intrada’s technology staff ensured all network connections and WiFi performed well for each on-site speaker, moderator and panelist.
Blending the Best of Live and Virtual into an Engaging Hybrid: Executing a seamless production captured and held attendees’ attention. Intrada’s pre-event trainings and dress rehearsals, branded slides and graphics, back-up videos and a visually-attractive presentation resulted in smooth transitions, a steady event pace and comfortable flow.
To give attendees the prestige and excitement of an in-person event, Intrada built a live main stage with professional sound, lighting, backdrop, multiple cameras, and teleprompter. The live main stage and an engaging emcee increased the energy of the main presentations, elevating the event’s professionalism and impressing attendees.
To incorporate speakers in the US and around the globe seamlessly into the virtual experience, Intrada facilitated fluent transitions between in-person emcees, real-time presentations and slide decks, videos and attendees’ event chat questions.
To maintain attendee interest and participation throughout the event, Intrada staff and Rotary members intentionally interacted with attendees via the event chat and social media functions. Some speakers engaged attendees by asking questions and seeking answers via chat. Intrada provided confidence monitors so speakers could read attendee answers live and interact with their audiences.
The Results
Rotary District 7360 leadership was thrilled with the results and were impressed with Intrada’s production of the hybrid event. Intrada’s efforts garnered a striking amount of engagement from the event website to registrations and attendance.
Event Website Results: Event website reports from April 27 – May 4, boasted 472 sessions - each with an average of eight actions on the site. Registration and Agenda pages had the highest views, followed by the Hopin 101 Tutorial created by Intrada staff.
Event Attendance: The number of attendees to the District Conference was significantly higher than any other event the District had held on Zoom. More impressively, even during the pandemic when attendance to all events waned, event registrations were only slightly lower than past in-person conferences.
Event attendees tuned in from far and near with 149 people registered from five countries. Actual attendance may have been higher as well, as some viewed the conference from home with a friend or partner. Notably, the event outperformed the average no-show percentage for virtual events (35 – 50 percent) by maintaining a staggering 93 percent attendance rate.
Attendee Participation: Average attendee participation time was very high at six hours and fourteen minutes – meaning attendees watched 48% of the entire conference. Main stage presentations were the best attended, followed by networking and breakout sessions.
Event Donations: In lieu of a registration fee this year, there was a recommended donation of $25 to the Rotary Annual Fund or Rotary’s PolioPlus Program. Excitingly, donations to the funds exceeded $17,000.
Social Media Engagement: More than 2,000 people were reached through Facebook posts and videos and more than 400 people engaged with the District via social media. Viewership of the HD event streaming via YouTube drew 17 viewers within one week of the event. Activity and reach continue as content is shared and reused for future events.
Testimonials
“This conference offered many more options to our attendees than our normal district conference. Presentations comprised a total of seven panels (several with slideshows), two concurrent breakout sessions each day, a business meeting, three major speakers, and multiple live on-stage presentations. Consequently, the production was a bit more complicated. You more than rose to the challenge. Based on the comments I received, you rocked it!!” District Governor Elect Vicki Zimmerman.
“Outstanding experience! I just wanted to thank you for your patience and good nature during our conference. Your professionalism made all of us feel much more comfortable.” - Dana Orsini, incoming District Governor and live stage presenter
“You and your team were FANTASTIC to say the least and PROFESSIONALLY OUTSTANDING to say the most. Without your team we would not have a had the successful event that we did.” – Herb Smith, District Governor Nominee, Publicity Chair, live stage presenter, and social media support
“If ever there was a time to join in on the “reply all” love, it’s now - Incredible job everyone! I expected the conference to be great, but you all exceeded even those expectations.” – Devin Mathias, panel presentation facilitator
“Thank you and your team so much for the incredible job you have done to make this conference a success.” - Irvin Wright, District Governor
“I am so impressed with your varying skill sets. You made it very easy for me.” – Swan Stull, past District Governor, panel presenter and live stage presenter
The Intrada Team
Nicole Keiner, Strategist, Production Manager
Rachel Edwards, Strategist, Co-Production Manager & Training
David Steele, Partner, Engineer & Technical
James Schwemmer, Programmer, Video Designer / Engineer
Ben Rinehart, Network Technician
James Haywood, Event Platform
Jennifer Daniel, Web Developer
Intrada’s Live, Virtual and Hybrid Event Capabilities
Event Planning Services
Full-service Event Planning from concept to closing
Full Event Production Services
Event Consulting
Timeline Preparation
Full-service Speaker Training, Preparation, Communication and Technical Support Services
Pre-event Trainings and Run Throughs for Staff
Platform Moderation and Monitoring
Session Moderation and Monitoring
Equipment and Facility Management
Event Platforms Supported- Teams, Zoom, GoToMeeting, GoToWebinar, YouTube, Facebook, Vimeo, Hopin, Airmeet, Pathable – others may be available upon request
Marketing and Communications Support
Marketing and Communications Consulting
Branding
Content Writing
Script Writing
Promotion and Engagement During Event
Production Services
Production Schedule and Management
Virtual Sets / Live Stage and On-Premise Studio Configurations
Multi-Camera and Multi-Source Rendering
Teleprompter Services
HD Streaming with Restreaming Capabilities and Multi-Channel Distribution
Live and Production Audio Services (wireless / engineering / broadcast / facility audio)
Technical Support
Event Website Creation, Editing, Maintenance, and SEO
Motion Graphics, Graphical Design and Animation
Video Editing / Pre-Recording / Presentation Creation and Design
Training and User Support using Technical Help Desk Approach
On-premise Network and WiFi Management (onsite service management and delivery)
Technical Help Desk Support Available throughout Event
Intrada Team
Decades of Experience in Event Planning, Marketing & PR, Production Services, and Tech Support
Team Approach with Production Focus
Personable and Friendly Team
About the author
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