Fully Brief Your Speakers for a Hybrid Event

   

You have been planning your hybrid event for some time now and all is looking good. You have been on a number of social media channels, you have been interviewed by traditional media and the buzz of your event is literally set to explode. All you have to do now is to execute your hybrid event.

If your event is hybrid, which for me is “bringing together a face to face and remote audience for a shared participatory experience in real time” – (Paul Cook 2012) then you will have been planning the finer details for some time. I know that your event will be a success because of all the attention to briefing and testing that you have taken. 

Briefing your speakers is a very important element in the success of your event. Whilst this is nothing new as all speakers need to be briefed for any event they happen to be working at, there are some extra considerations when it comes to your hybrid event.

The most obvious point is to let the speaker know that your event is a hybrid event and what that means to them. If the speaker is used to moving around the stage or within the audience, is that something that can still work? Or not?  If the speaker is to remain static will that hinder their actual performance? Some speakers like to move and some don’t, but the key for them will be to understand what you need them to be doing for your hybrid event. 

Have you advised the speaker of where they are in the speaking schedule? Earlier this year I was a remote speaker from the UK finishing the second day of a tour day conference in Australia. That had some challenges as it involved me waking up at 3.00am and being bright and ready to go. I knew that the live attendees could be thinking of the finish of the event and relaxing at the BBQ and drinks reception. My job as a speaker was to be able to automatically get into the ‘rhythm’ of the event with ease.

Have you worked through what will be involved in the presentation from the speaker? This is an absolute must. With a live face to face audience it is easy to make exercises work. The ice breaker or the ‘getting to know you’ networking exercise are just two that spring to mind. But, will these translate with the remote attendees? They can work with the remote attendees but it does require some extra thinking. Believe me, there is nothing worse than watching the face to face attendees participate in exercise and realise that somehow along the way, the remote attendee has been left out. It’s a sure way to lose your remote attendee participants.

Keeping to time is a must. It should be this way for all events but in my experience, many events do not always keep to the schedule. But, this is where you as the event planner have to be decisive and cut off any speaker that looks as though they are in for longer than their allocated time slot.  It is worth remembering that some remote attendees may only participate when their ‘speaker of interest’ comes on and that means the remote attendee is expecting them to be on time.  If not, then it’s likely they will leave your event.

Briefing your speakers comprehensively and keeping everyone to time will pay dividends and will be bound to have benefits for the success of your event. 

Related Posts and Resources 

Hybrid Event Centre