A hybrid-first mentality: Hybrid events have become common amongst hosts and events determined to continue to build their audience across state and country lines!
Hybrid events are a great way to reach a broader audience online, reduce costs and economic footprint or increase your engagement with your audience.
To ensure your event's success, treating both virtual and in-person ticket holders equally is important.
Combining a smooth customer journey - starting with the ticket buying process - with a slick digital and in-person offering will keep attendees returning for more.
Read on below for some tips on how you can set up the ticketing on your Humanitix hybrid event!
🎫 Set up your ticket types
Create a separate ticket type
Add a paid or free ticket type to your event for those who want to join online or in person. Not only will this mean you can offer a discounted price, but you can also customise the customer journey for those who have selected the online-only or in-person ticket (read on).
🤔 Live ticket, virtual ticket, or a hybrid ticket?
You never know what may happen.
While you may want to charge more for an in-person ticket than an online ticket, it’s worth assuring ticket buyers that they can still access the online event no matter which ticket they buy.
Use date/time/location overrides on the ticket
Using the advanced settings you can set overrides on a ticket type so that ticket holders receive the most relevant information on their confirmation email and digital ticket.
For example, enabling this on the online-access ticket will provide information such as the start times of the online stream or delivery instructions of the stream link. Alternatively, add venue location or entry times for the in-person ticket holders.
This information may differ between those joining online or in person, so you’ll prevent confusion amongst ticket buyers.
Click the settings ⚙️ icon on your ticket type > advanced settings
The information you enter in the date/time overrides will appear on the ticket holder's confirmation email and ticket type.
For all other tickets, they will show the default event information as entered on the event information page of your event.
📦 Deliver your online content
Option A: Deliver your Livestream link in your events email communications
Quickly send attendees a simple link so that they can join hassle-free!
1. Add the Livestream link to your confirmation email
This is delivered automatically upon registration.
Head to design & comms > messages and select the email message tab
Add your delivery instructions or important information right onto the confirmation email. While custom messages can be created for online access ticket buyers only, consider whether you would like to offer the live stream link for all ticket buyers in case any can’t make it last minute to the in-person event.
See our full guide on custom messages
2. Send out the link in an email campaign
Don’t have the link ready just yet? or want to send it out closer to the event?
Email all registered attendees before the event date. You can choose to select only the online access ticket holders or all ticket holders. Smart 🤓
Check out our guide on email campaigns
Option B: Use the Humanitix Virtual Event Hub
Looking to offer that extra - wow - factor? 😲
Customise the customer journey further with the virtual event hub, a dedicated online landing page accessible via an attendee's digital ticket.
Not only is this a secure way to deliver your online access, but the landing page can host multiple live streams and/or breakout video links, additional written and visual content, and even give spotlights on your speakers - all on one page.
Enable the virtual event hub via the promote tab on the left-hand menu bar of your event.
Make sure to enable the virtual event hub for only online ticket holders.
Click the settings ⚙️ icon in the top right.
>> See our full guide on using the Virtual event hub to run your online/hybrid event
Build your virtual event hub by adding video, text, and presenter elements
Add your livestream link to the virtual event hub
Create a slick landing page that centralises all your content
Ticket buyer view - Build out your virtual event hub landing page
📣 Promote the hybrid nature of your event
In addition to promoting your event through your normal marketing channels, there are a couple of tips you can take on when stylising your Humanitix event page.
📃 Include it in your event description
Add a clear piece of text to let prospective attendees know that there is both an online and in-person option to attend the event. Your copy may reflect whether you are running a primarily in-person event with an additional livestream option, or vice-versa.
Customise your event description via the event information > details page.
🎀 Add a ribbon or text to your event banner image
Add a banner to your event image for a colourful and eye-catching promotion of the online element. Your event banner is often the first thing ticket buyers will see.
When adding your event banner image via the event information > details page, check out the design on canva tool to easily edit and insert your image.
📍 Set your event location
In-person or virtual? Things may not always go as planned. Setting your event up as a virtual event can help prepare for unforeseen changes while still providing the ability to attend in person, should the circumstances allow.
This means you can focus on offering a slick digital offering (for all ticket buyers) and reduce costs with a smaller venue for a better ROI (return on investment).
For example, set the event to an online location and include instructions for how the event will be delivered.
However, if your event has elements that have to go ahead in person, using the steps above means you can still set the event location as the live address while highlighting the hybrid model.
This is also great if you’re just looking to take advantage of the hybrid model and reach a broader audience that would not be able to attend in any circumstance e.g. inter-state or international attendees.
In this case, set your event location as the in-person location and use the ticket type date/time/location overrides.
📼 Send a recording post-event
Option A: Send a link to the recording to all ticket holders using an email campaign
Like sending them an email with instructions to join the online event, you can also use the Humanitix email campaign tool to send a follow-up email to ticket holders with instructions on accessing a recording of the event.
Host this recording on an online storage device (Google Drive, OneDrive etc) or video streaming service (Vimeo, Youtube etc) and provide the publicly shareable link in your email message.
Option B: Use the Virtual Event Hub
If you’re already using the hub, you can simply update the content on the page you’ve created. Ticket holders can access the recording by accessing the virtual event hub - the same journey they made when joining the online event!
To do this:
Remove the link to the online event and replace it with an embed or link to your recording.
Let ticket holders know they can access this recording by directing them back to their digital ticket and/or send an email campaign and include the @viewvirtualeventhub shortcut in your email message.
E.g.
Hi @Firstname,
Thank you so much for joining us the other night! We hope you had as much fun watching as we did hosting the event. We really appreciate your support!
If you missed the event or would like to watch it again, we have provided a recording via the link below. This recording will be available for 1 week from today.
Recording: @Viewvirtualeventhub …
… Kindest
Event host