Hybrid events - New technology, new opportunity

International Confex 21’s Let’s Do London Theatre, 2 September, hosted a session on the final afternoon, ‘Hybrid Events- New technology, new opportunity’. It was a panel discussion of how event planners can use new forms of technology in their future event programmes. Speakers included Edward Poland, co-founder of Hire Space; Vanessa Lovatt, chief evangelist at Glisser; Simon Burton, co-founder of Virtual Events Institute; and Adam Simpson, director of marketing and US sales at etc venues Burton stated that hybrid events should be cared about “because it’s all about the audiences”. Simpson highlighted how the use of “technology has become accepted and come part of common nature”, arguing that event planners must move with this trend. Lovatt emphasised how technology and social media “has the ability to amplify your event beyond the actual dates of your event”. In response to challenges from the audience, the panel agreed that technology should not look to substitute ‘face-to-face’ connections but should look to improve and further your aims within the event. Burton added that while technology is critical to amplifying your events, it is still important to ensure the highest quality of content is produced. Burton summarised that our greatest failure was “obsessing about who is in the room, without thinking about who we were excluding”. For further information on International Confex 21, visit here