If you’re like me (Luke Bodin) you will be gutted to hear the government’s announcement on Wednesday (08 Dec 2021). The prospect of having a third year of Covid-19 restrictions, lockdowns, travel bans and social distancing fills me with dread!

How does this impact events? The challenge for us as a business and our clients is making sure we spend money wisely going into 2022. My least favourite part of the last few years is seeing people putting on events only to then lose money due to no fault of their own.

None of us can predict the future and unfortunately, in today’s climate, planning horizons are very short!

So here are a few reasons why making your events hybrid for 2022 could help ensure your event still happens whilst minimising risk.

01. The event will happen either way

If the in-person part of your event has to be cancelled due to the dreaded restrictions then you are still able to run an online version. In essence, it’s almost like having a Plan B (ironically!) from the start.

If you have always had a Plan B then it avoids you having to plan an online event from scratch.

02. You can make the event more accessible

We all want our events to be more accessible. There is something really special about being in the same room as people that you will not be able to replicate with online engagement, however, giving people options is important to reach a wider audience. There may also be cases of attendees needing to self-isolate or just simply if coming to the in-person event doesn’t work for their diary or budget.

“I wouldn’t have been able to attend this event if it wasn’t online”

03. You can reduce your minimum booking quantity

Although many of the venues we have booked our behalf of clients have given us the flexibility to change dates of events, unfortunately, there have been certain instances where clients have had to pay cancellation charges for events that didn’t go ahead.

If you run a hybrid event you can have a much smaller audience which means that the venue costs can come down – reducing your risk of abortive venue costs.

If planned well, hybrid events can be a great way to engage your audience. Please get in touch with BA Events if you would like to run a hybrid event in 2022.

Watch our video on Hybrid Events for 2022: https://www.linkedin.com/company/baevents/videos/