Episode Transcript
Speaker 1 00:00:04 Good afternoon, everybody. Jordan Goodfellow gig. Ready here. We've got a very exciting episode today. We're talking about hybrid events and all the things that are involved and surrounded with it. But before we dive in, let me remind you, checking out gig ready podcast. The one thing we ask, we're not going to advertise to you. We're not going to tell you anything that you should buy other than how to be a better professional. And our goal is just that. So give us a like subscribe on iTunes or Stitcher or any one of the other podcast apps you use. And, uh, we'll make sure to give you guys all the best information possible, getting the information from the people that have it to the people that need it. This is the gig ready podcast.
Speaker 2 00:00:48 <inaudible>
Speaker 1 00:01:03 And we're back with four of my favorite meeting planners in the entire world. They were kind enough to return for round two. Somehow they're putting up with my wonderful lovable personality. Sarah Lynn, Tiffany Lynn, and also Joe Mack is here to give us some color for the day, Joe. Thanks for being here. We appreciate it. Thanks for having me back. Welcome ladies, ladies. Thank you so much. Glad to have you here. We're going to dive right in talking about hybrid. Um, everybody's been doing virtual for gosh, 12 months. Now we talked about virtual last week and now we are moving into the world of in-person and not in person all at the same time. Um, do you guys feel like your clients are ready for hybrid? They're kind of itching. They're like, all right, we got to do something. We've got to like, we're tired of looking at computer screens all day long.
Speaker 0 00:01:58 Um, and this is Sarah. So I think my clients, I don't think anyone's excited about it per se. I think they've been hearing a lot about it. They know that it's an option and they want to be prepared with it if that's what they need to do. So, you know, everybody wants to get back to face-to-face meetings, but having the option to add the hybrid component to it, you know, to take care of people who either can't travel, don't feel comfortable traveling when everything else opens up, I think is, is the way that everyone's kind of getting prepared for it.
Speaker 1 00:02:29 Got it. Lynn, you were going to say something.
Speaker 2 00:02:34 We had some clients last night who saw the Grammys and popped up today on calls and we're like, that looks really good. Could we do that? So I think seeing it as an example is going to be important for people. We're also getting some sticker shock questions for people that we submitted the proposals for the fall events and they're coming back going, was it, you know, percentage of what it was last year? And I keep explaining it's two events. Yeah.
Speaker 3 00:03:00 I agree with you Tiffany here, Lynn. I agree with you. People want to see it first. Um, so for me and our team, we I'll just say it. We kind of are excited to move into hybrid, um, obviously with the safety precautions, but um, to your point, yeah, virtual is getting a little bit mundane. So you know, nothing that we're doing right now, we're looking into more of the fall at earliest, but really looking into moving into hybrid. But when I was going to make a point about, is that just like anything else still want to see what other people are doing first? No one wants to really jump in and be the first to do it. So it's going to be interesting in the next couple of months who's doing it and who's not
Speaker 4 00:03:45 Lots. Yeah, Joe, as we're, as we're, uh, transitioning into, uh, hybrid events versus completely virtual events, um, how are you defining to your clients? Uh, the, the, um, what a hybrid event is,
Speaker 3 00:04:04 Again, that buddy jumping on that, you know, I think that it's interesting. This is Lynn, the other Lynn on this podcast. Yeah, the two. And then, um, it was interesting. We had an event, uh, Friday, that was the same event that a year ago we took it from live to virtual in three days and our team was looking at each other and we're like, it's almost like we've got this figured out. You know, we were laughing at that full circle moment. And, um, there was a lot of comment in the chat around. We will, we will continue to attend virtually. This is just, it just works. We've got it figured out. So I think that, um, one of the things that we're doing, and I I'm so glad Lynn, that you mentioned the Grammys because I Fe I took away so many best practices and really cool things about that last night.
Speaker 3 00:04:53 And, um, we're starting floor plans for an event in November that is hybrid in nature. So we're, we're starting, what does it actually look like? You know, a concept deck with like, this is the experience people would have, would have site, and this is the virtual experience and this is where they intersect. And, um, this is where there's unique offerings for each of the two audience. And I really, as people are saying, you know, two different events, it's, that's a sticky point for me. Cause I keep thinking it's one event, the event is your product. You have two segments of customers. So I D I I'm concerned about people, you know, really distinguishing these two things as separate experiences. When I think we should be focused on one event, which is your product and two different types of customer or user. Yeah.
Speaker 2 00:05:41 Good point. This is the other lens. I think that's, that's spot on. I, you know, one interesting point that came up this week was, you know, hybrid events used to be designed as a live event with a virtual component. And now it's flipped really them virtual event
Speaker 5 00:05:58 With a live component. So it's just, you know, the experience is a one experience, but sort of thinking through it with two different streams of thought is, is important as well.
Speaker 0 00:06:10 I think that regardless of, I love the idea of not thinking of it as two separate events. And I think that people jump to that when they're talking about the budget, when we're trying to explain why it is so expensive, because we're saying you're basically paying for two events, but we have to stress that it's two events in one. It really is that one event, you have your virtual attendees and you have your onsite attendees, or if you're doing just your speakers onsite, or if you're doing hub and spoke and you have different groups in different places, but the, the budget has to go towards the virtual component of it and the in real life components of it. And also the third part, which is the production that kind of bridges those two together, but it really is just one event. Um, I actually know of a couple of options.
Speaker 0 00:06:56 I think it's wonderful that the Grammy's did this because people can see it as an option of, Oh, this could actually work. It's not something that's so scary. Um, and I think we've seen in the past, in the pandemic, some good examples and some bad examples. And I think everyone's been able to kind of take, you know, some, some notes from those. Um, but yeah, I definitely think that, that we need to take into account the budget. I I'm having the same thing with my clients getting sticker shock. Um, but it's, it's something that is a positive, it's something that is a new option that you can add to your event. I don't think people have to think of it as we have to have a hybrid event. They can think of it as, Hey, listen, maybe we wouldn't have gotten these attendees to, to attend if they couldn't attend virtually, or if they couldn't attend in person. Now we get to do both.
Speaker 5 00:07:43 Well, I think that's the, that's the sell to the, to the client is that you're, you're expanding your reach. If you turn it into a hybrid event, you can add more, uh, consumers on the other end to attend the event. Even if they don't necessarily control, they can't travel or they can't fly or, you know, afford to come. So you're, that's going to be the best way to sell that from a budget standpoint. What do I just want it to, cause you made a good point when you're talking about what does that look like? And I think defining what hybrid and from financial events mean to, to clients and customers, because people don't want to feel like they're missing out, Oh, I can't attend, you know, the live event. So if I attend a virtual, am I missing out of the benefits of this hybrid? So regardless of what it is, I think just finding a hybrid and I think for any event, it will be different, but defining that when you start to promote the event and let people know what actually that hybrid event looks like, I think that's important. So if, if for events like w like external, let's call them external versus internal, cause we
Speaker 1 00:08:56 All do. We do both, um, you know, on an external world, if it's a, if it's a leveraging, Hey, get more people in and, and hybrid makes sense. What about meetings? That is only of an internal nature sales meetings, uh, places where it's only employees and normally, so like for instance, I used to do a bunch of work with a vaccine maker and they would bring all of their employees in the U S to one place two times a year for their POA. And they would, you know, they were all there. So do you think that you see events like those becoming hybrid or do they just stay all virtual completely? Why even bring people into the same place for a day and a half when you may not necessarily get the same effect? So double the cost of the, of the event, but yet only get half the people there and then I've got a broadcast at anyways.
Speaker 0 00:09:48 I think there's a, there's a lot of benefits that you get out of the virtual or the hybrid component, um, of the meeting. There is, you know, obviously if you're going to be recording your assets and you can use them, you know, as, as continued archive, um, you know, footage, you can use them in other ways, repurpose them throughout the year to be able to either, uh, do further trainings. If you're thinking of like an internal sales meeting or an internal training meeting, you can, you know, use that footage again to train in the future. You can get a lot of, you can kind of get a lot for your money for what you're doing and what they're saving on flights. They're saving on time out of the office, they're saving on food and beverage on, you know, transportation costs. It does offset it to a point.
Speaker 0 00:10:31 Um, and I think with internal events, you know, I have a lot of corporate clients who right now they, they don't want to do in person events because of just the liability. Whereas if it's an external event, people kind of have the opportunity or they have the choice whether or not to attend. So I think having the ha the hybrid component takes away some of that liability, because you're basically giving your people the option of whether or not they want to attend in-person or virtually. But I think just like Tiffany said, you really have to, you can't think of your virtual attendees as an afterthought, you have to set expectations of what is going to be included. And what's going to be expected of both audiences and make sure that the experience is just as worthwhile for the virtual audience as for the onsite audience. Yeah.
Speaker 2 00:11:22 Oh, I was going to say, I think she makes a good point about business travel. I think it's going to be really interesting to see how corporate large companies sort of decide to, to work there, uh, employee meetings. And I could see doing something like virtually every other year and in person every other year to sort of split those costs. Now that they've saved all that money this year and things have been running well. I mean, what you're really missing out obviously is your networking and your, your team bonding. But perhaps if you could combine that with a virtual experience, you know, I could see costs going down
Speaker 3 00:11:54 And people moving
Speaker 0 00:11:54 To a model like that. Yes, sir. Sorry, really quick. Just look at what happened with work from home, how many companies had said, there's no way our people can work from home. We'll be losing so much productivity. And then pandemic happened. Everyone had to be, had to work from home. And now they're saying, you know what, maybe we don't need to have people come back to the office, look how much we're saving on rent. Look how much we're saving on, you know, coffee. So now they're saying, Oh, maybe we'll have 10% of the workforce or one day a week in the office. So they're kind of shifting their thinking. And it's the same exact thing when it comes to virtual and in-person meetings, maybe they don't have to have everyone come on site to be able to get the same benefits.
Speaker 3 00:12:31 I was going to bring that up as well. When you're talking about internal events, um, evaluating what your policies are going forward, or what are the work from home policies, and then what is everyone's comfort level? Um, so when you evaluate where people are coming back to the office, there are going to be some people that are like, okay, how can we get together on a smaller scale? So I still think that hybrid is going to be a viable source, but at the same time, I think, you know, having, having a choice, especially, you know, if you're talking about internal events with your employees, I don't think you want to single out people that aren't ready to come back to work or in person, and still having that option where it's not placed on them where, you know, on the corporate level. So having that hybrid option, as far as, um, internal meetings, I think will still be important.
Speaker 3 00:13:22 I also, this is Lynn. I think that, um, we did an event for Boeing recently and they had a speaker on there and they talked about business travel and their projection was that business travel wouldn't be back fully until 2024. And that number when they said, I was like, that seems so far away, but they made a great point where, you know, people are gonna stay put for a while until that first sales person goes out and, and books a new gig or takes business. Cause they got on a plane to do it. Then, you know, for our sales teams, then they're going to be like everybody get on a plane. You know? So I thought that was a great perspective. But the other thing that comes to mind around an internal meeting is the opportunity. If you think about the Grammy's last night, how they basically swapped out the, the live audience, um, during the performances, I don't know if you guys noticed that, but they had the category nominees come in while the performances are going on.
Speaker 3 00:14:12 And so there was almost essentially a new audience every after every performance segment. And, you know, so maybe there's an opportunity again, to reinvent this and say, okay, um, new hires could be there that morning at the Arizona resort. And then, you know, top leadership comes in that night and has the same smaller intimate experience. And then, you know, top customers come in the next day and, you know, all weaving this kind of live experience into sub segments of your attendees and having them kind of swap the, the live setting. But then again, the whole show is broadcast. I dunno, I, I was thinking of last night as I watched it, what a cool concept to take your audience and kind of segment them out and have them have different experiences and opportunities to connect live.
Speaker 1 00:15:00 So then I'm gonna, I'm actually gonna skip a few questions here and move right to the right, to the costs side of things. Cause I mean, that really is the biggest, the biggest factor in all of this. I mean, from a cost standpoint, um, normally you don't, you, you have your buckets for your, your hotel, food and beverage, you know, room, all of that sort of stuff. Then production costs, travel costs. And so on, you know, all of those are in play now everything's going to move around. And, um, what are you guys seeing from a standpoint of costs? Where's it coming from? Where's it going to, and how much are they having to add a percentage? Are they taking a percentage away? Like what, where are you guys? Is it all over the board? I have, no, I really honestly have no idea because I don't see what you guys see on a daily basis.
Speaker 0 00:15:51 Well, you said, you know, this is the main point and yes and no, because there are some ways that a hybrid event can be very expensive, but there are some ways where just a normal in-person event can be very expensive. There are ways to do things cheaply. And I think the, the, the issue comes from people's expectations of what things should cost. It's not that it costs so much it's that people think, Oh, well, we're doing it on zoom. This part should be free. It should be half the price because only half the people are there. And that's kind of what the mindset that leads them to get that sticker shock. Because if you had a, a live event with large production and you know, everyone on site and you're paying for food and beverage and hotel and transportation, it's going to be a high cost and just, you know, taking half the people out there.
Speaker 0 00:16:38 Yes, you take away half of those costs. But if you are then integrating either the mobile platform, um, you know, the, I'm sorry, the virtual platform and the production, and kind of the interface between the two, it's not that much of difference. If you're going from something very inexpensive and having to add the production to create the virtual part of it, then that's where I think the cost comes in. That's where it makes a difference. But you can look at it as it's still an opportunity. If this is an internal event, obviously if it's not going to be a, you know, if attendees are not paying, then that's not really something that you can use to kind of leverage it. But if this is a, a paid event, you can expand your reach. The great thing about virtual, we said last week is that it's infinitely scalable. You don't need to add more hotel rooms. You don't need to add, you know, more, more, more space. You can scale it. So pricing it in a way that encourages you to be able to grow this audience that doesn't really add anything to your costs really can help to, to kind of outlay any costs that you're putting out.
Speaker 3 00:17:45 Uh, you know, just the, the value to sponsors. I mean, just the, the, the larger in
Speaker 2 00:17:50 General, even if it's not a paid event, a lot of times it's worth it, just having a virtual component, just to increase that those audience, viewers numbers for your sponsors. Um, our costs generally, I mean, like you said, it's like a virtual event. It can be all over the place, depending on the bells and whistles. If we've got moving versus stationary cameras, the whole nine yards, but typically taking travel out of it, it's coming in about a quarter 25% more to add on another director, another technical Purdue, you know, that's sort of the basic levels we need.
Speaker 1 00:18:25 Got it. So, so in your experience so far, you're seeing like a 25% overall cost increase only in production or in the total cost of the event. Did you catch me?
Speaker 2 00:18:40 No. Sorry. It cut out. I'm not apologies that, are
Speaker 1 00:18:43 You seeing a 20, is it a 25% increase in production costs alone or the total, like, you know, looking at the whole event, the whole big bowl of wax,
Speaker 2 00:18:53 Um, there's some overlapping areas, but the whole big ball of wax for us for just a basic stream and, you know, alive event is coming on about 25% more. I mean, that's a, that's a generalization based on sort of eight projections of events. We haven't done many of them, but that's sort of the number I have in my head that keeps popping up.
Speaker 1 00:19:16 I want exact figures to the penny Lynn, come on. That's what we're looking for here tomorrow, tomorrow. Yeah. Um, so let's talk hotels real quick. I've noticed that hotels have started to add in, you know, they've got all of these, you know, new fangled emails that I'm getting all the time about. We've got all these hybrid plans and all this hybrid stuff and all these things, and it's all interconnected and it's going to be awesome. Um, do you guys feel like that is ready? And they're actually presenting that in a way that, you know, it's going to help actually keep costs under control? Cause we know th I mean, virtual can just run. I mean, if it just starts going, you start adding people, you start adding bandwidth, you start adding registrations. I mean, all of that can happen. Uh, where, um, where do the hotels fall into all of this on our, do we think that they're effectively promoting the idea that we can really keep these costs under control as they, as it grows?
Speaker 3 00:20:17 What's interesting about, um, hotels and venues in general is they're going to be, it's going to be now a more competitive market because I know we're going to reach out to venues that are on top of it that we feel supported. So it's going to be interesting to see previous venues that we've used or hotels that we've used and what they've done. And if they have, they're not there yet, I'm going to someone who has, you know, all the capabilities to run a hybrid event. So I personally am curious and interested in like the, the venues that we are going to start looking into and really diving into. Um, those are going to be the ones that are the ones that are on top of it already and promoting for me. I haven't seen a whole lot of ladies. I don't know if you've had a lot of, um, venues reach out and promote about their, um, capabilities, but I, right now haven't seen that. So I'm hoping it's in soon.
Speaker 2 00:21:16 So it makes me nervous, just speaking to Lynn's point last week, about how we build our teams. And we've gone through battle with our production partners this past year, moving over to a hotel virtual team makes me nervous because I don't want to go into battle with people that I haven't done events with. Yeah.
Speaker 3 00:21:37 To that end land, you know, uh, we do some training with hotels and I'll tell you, they're, they're not quite ready. And it's unfortunate because I feel like they could have taken that off season last year and really gotten up to speed. And, and unfortunately, so many of them were, you know, uh, for loader that they were engaged in that, and now they're coming back and it's kinda like, we're ready now when he just, I was asking for floor plans the other day for, you know, a hybrid or a social distance kind of set, and they didn't have any of those ready yet. So it's like, we're, we're ready. Like, we're, we're going to go a couple of points about the hotels. I think one hotel I'm working with right now is doing an incredible job of arming us with marketing material about how safe it is to be in their venue and not just like a punch list, but like the marketing language that we need to put our attendees at ease, which is impressive.
Speaker 3 00:22:24 Secondly, I think that, um, connectivity's going to be a huge issue because it'd be, it was one thing when you were, you know, a thousand people in a ballroom and the wifi stuttered a bit, and people couldn't check their email for 30 minutes and then they got ramped back up to speed, one big pipeline in, and just, you know, five different groups using it. Again, I hope that they've spent some time investing in their infrastructure because it's, that's just not a, it's not going to be okay to be sorry. They can't get their email where, you know, one of your vendors is pulling some bandwidth and you know, we're going to need to have some, um, real reassurance that, that the connectivity is strong and can support what's happening in their building as well as what's happening online. And then the other thing I would say is a lot of the hotels are working with us to negotiate a studio in as part of our space rental and having them anticipate, we understand that you're here and we're tending to your folks in the ballroom, but that you're also here conducting a full-blown, you know, you need a production war room to handle these audience members that are everywhere.
Speaker 3 00:23:29 So I think those hotels, hoteliers that are on top of understanding that maybe they're negotiating that in, maybe they're, you know, working with us on the price of, of wifi to get us back in their building. Maybe they're working with us to offer that studio. Those are just some things that I relative to having been a hotelier for a lot of years. I hope these salespeople are really anticipating our needs. Rand, can you imagine what they're going to charge us for internet going forward? Can you imagine? Well, and that's where they want us back so bad though. That's where I've been hearing that, you know why, while you were gone, we built a studio. We did invest in infrastructure. We, and we have what you need because we wanted you to come and do a broadcast from here live. So now when you come back live, we also have this other, I mean, for us, I found three different hotels that built out pretty elaborate studios that are going to be awesome to use those while we have people sitting in the ballroom and for the people that are joining virtually
Speaker 0 00:24:27 Yes, to both of the lens. I'm so glad that you both mentioned the, the connectivity and the internet. Definitely. You have to worry about upload speeds as well as download speeds. Because a lot of times when you're attending, these are just in the ballroom, they're just downloading. But when you're streaming, that upload has to be on and we recommend to have a dedicated network and to have hard lines for the production team. And obviously, you know, you usually have one or two in the ballroom, but this is, let's say you're going to have a lot of breakouts. You need a hard line in each of those. Uh, we're dealing with hotels right now, and the hotels want to have, uh, for example, some of the hotels will allow us to bring our production team in for the general session, but the hotel has to manage anything.
Speaker 0 00:25:05 That's a breakout. How does that work with the virtual program? Because if the, or I'm sorry, or a hybrid program, if the breakouts are also going to be streamed out, and those are going to be interactive programs with the virtual attendees, we need to have our production company, you know, running all of that. So those are these conversations that I don't think anyone was really ready to have. Um, I know, you know, you asked about different hotels and what they're offering. I have seen a lot of these studios being built, you know, green screen, we have, um, you know, different, different formats on the video cameras. I think some of them are kind of ramping up and it's really exciting. Um, I know that we had a meeting with Hyatt hotels a couple of weeks ago, and they have a new kind of hub and spoke program that they're promoting, where they have a number of their properties.
Speaker 0 00:25:47 Uh, I think it's domestic right now, but it may be worldwide eventually where they will, if you want to have kind of these smaller regional meetings, but all connected together, then they will cover the, or they will include the audio visual and the production that connects them. And they use different kinds of cameras and things, um, obviously, you know, for smaller meetings. And then you can, you can scale up as you need to, but I think hotels are trying to be creative, which I think is wonderful. Um, you know, that's how they've survived for so many years, but, um, the, you know, the production is, is, uh, you know, it's always an issue when you're trying to, to bring in your own team and the hotel wants to kind of own certain pieces.
Speaker 3 00:26:26 And I think the hotels need to have a technical expert on staff. I mean, it's almost as critical as having a catering manager, you know, they need to have a technology manager that understands the nuances of this hybrid, um, needs. I'm hope, I'm hopeful that they're making that in people who have
Speaker 4 00:26:44 Spent some time in production, you know, that really understand the virtual components. So one of the things that, that I know with my clients, um, they often have their go-to hotels and their, their venues that they attend, you know, hundreds of events at year after year after year. Um, but if they, if they don't have the connectivity and they don't have those, those things, those important options that you're looking for for a hybrid event, I'm wondering if there's an untapped market for vendors like a wifi provider, just like, just like you would rent a generator for, uh, for, uh, an event that needs a lot of power for lighting and audio and stuff. So I'm wondering if there's, if there's a, an untapped market for somebody like that to, to step up into the playing field.
Speaker 0 00:27:32 I think there definitely is. We actually work with a vendor who brings in hotspots and is able to provide that wifi. Uh, one of the benefits is in case there is an issue with the, with the internet. They're actually the ones who are controlling it. So it's not like you have to call Comcast, or you have to call, you know, <inaudible> to see if they can kind of flip a switch to give you more bandwidth. Um, the problem is a lot of hotels will fight against you being able to bring that, um, you know, we all know that internet is one of the highest margins, you know, it's, it's, it's, the, the costs are very, are very good for the hotels. Um, technically I believe there's a law that prevents hotels from blocking any wifi signals, at least within the U S it's not necessarily the same internationally, so we should be able to bring in our own wifi. But again, not something that, you know, whoever sourcing or your sourcing partner would have to negotiate that with the hotel. And that's part of this whole conversation that we're now having.
Speaker 1 00:28:28 Yeah, very much so. And you're right, there was a whole bunch of lawsuits against Marriott. I'm going to, I'm just going to call them out because they were blocking stuff. A number of years ago that got, you know, they got struck down saying you can't do that. Um, because you're blocking a utility at that point. In fact, they were, I think they were caught blocking cell phone service specifically at that point because people were working to use their own devices. Um, so that creates an interesting scenario. I do have one friend who runs a bunch of studios out of Chicago, that they have this technology where in fact, if they can't get the speed out of the hotel, they can put a microwave transmitter on the roof. And they actually, within 50 miles can get a hundred up in a hundred down like reliably without, without even blinking.
Speaker 1 00:29:13 And I, so, I mean, in a lot of ways, I think this would drive the price down in the hotels, because you're going to have, especially in a, in an urban area, you can put a microwave transmitter on the top. And for a thousand bucks, I can get a hundred up a hundred down unlimited or whatever the cost is. It's not going to be the $10,000 for a 10 up 10 down connection that may work. And we hope it does. And they'll give you 500 kilobits per person kind of thing. Like, um, you know, in, it would drive competition. Am I wrong there? Or, I mean, are the hotels just going to try and pound it down our throats and say, here, you have to do this. And again, I'm not trying to knock on hotels. I, and I get Sarah, what you said wifi is. I mean, we're talking huge margins. Um, but at the same time, we have to be able to effectively do meetings, but then they'll give you the chairs for free.
Speaker 2 00:30:05 You're going to, I think they're going to start by trying to, trying to charge a fortune for it. And I hope if anything, this last year of virtual events has armed the average planner with a little bit more technical knowledge to go in and push back a little bit more because I think the cost in hotels previously, people didn't understand them. So they were just accepting them for what they were. And I hope that we'll be able to sort of ask more questions and push back a lot harder as an, as an industry than we previously have been because the, the scope in the hotels and the cost structure and hotels just got out of hand because it could, because people that we allowed them to do that in a sense without, because we didn't push back along the way.
Speaker 1 00:30:52 What, uh, so you mentioned that Lynn, that's a great point. Um, give me a couple of those things, like what are some things that we should be thinking about? Um, I always get super frustrated with, you know, hotels for getting clients into contracts that just like there was no, they never red to anything. They never, like, they just signed on the dotted line and boom, you know, okay, now you're stuck. And then we go back and try and do production and things like that. And I say, I need 20 down. And they're like, Oh, that's $50,000. What are some things that people can be thinking about now? Okay, here's the information we need to make sure we have on hand when we go to sign a contract and we're looking at these things about wifi, you know, so that we can actually negotiate that.
Speaker 0 00:31:35 I think people definitely need to be more knowledgeable about, you know, when they're going into the contract. And I think if anything, during this past year, what I've seen is people taking courses, they've been to, you know, taking, taking advantage of the kind of free time that they were forced to have, to be able to educate themselves a little more and also reaching out to, you know, to third parties. The reason why my clients use me is because I spend my time learning what I need, you know, what they deserve in their contracts and what they, what questions they should really be asking. So definitely need to ask about, um, internet speed, internet reliability, um, whether or not that counts for just the general session or the, um, the breakouts as well. Um, whether or not you can bring in your own production team and there's going to be shadow fees.
Speaker 0 00:32:18 Um, do they have the capability to stream to the sleeping rooms? Cause that is another hybrid, uh, you know, hybrid opportunity where if you can't have everyone in the, you know, a large general session, you have some small breakouts, but then you have the keynote stream to their sleeping rooms. Um, you know, there's lots of different options that people may not know exists and they may know to ask for. And I do agree. I think now things are going to be expensive. And I think, you know, we all want hotels to make money, you know, because we want hotels to stay in business and then we can keep doing our jobs, but we want people to be, um, educated consumers and educated planners. And, um, I think now, you know, people have more that they need to know about, which is kind of scary, but there's definitely resources out there to, you know, to kind of help with that.
Speaker 1 00:33:05 So what are some things I should know, I'm walking into a hotel to book and you know, and they tell me it's $10,000 for 10 up 10 down. Um, I could all say all that long. I think that's ridiculous. And they're just going to look at me and say, well, that's the price, you know, take it or leave it. What are some things that we, that we could say to them? And, and this is me genuinely asking because I'm always the guy that's like talking to, to now Encore saying, why does it cost this? And they can never, you know, the technician, the guy in the room, he can't explain it to me. He's like, I don't know. Um, what are some, what are some things we could actually say to say, okay, this is gonna get it. When it gets out of control to say, this is out of control.
Speaker 0 00:33:49 Well, just like Joe mentioned, there's definitely, it does exist. The ability to bring in wifi from an outside vendor. It's not just production and it's not just AB uh, it, you can bring in wifi and you can bring in hotspots and at least domestically within the U S it's against the law for them to, um, to block the signal, you do have to negotiate with the hotels and some hotels will not allow you to bring in your own, but that brings up the point where when you're negotiating with hotels, you have to say, this hotel will let me do this, this hotel won't, is that a deal breaker for me? And if so, is that a deal breaker for the hotel? I'm not going to use this hotel unless you allow me to, you know, to bring it in. You have to know, you know, be able to compare. And I think obviously things are going to be a little bit more expensive at the beginning, but as hotels start investing in these, um, you know, these studios and the different, the infrastructure that they have, hopefully the price will go down and then people won't have to kind of play this game anymore, or as much
Speaker 3 00:34:45 Three points from here. I always, I also think you need to go ahead. I also think that as a planner, you need to know your numbers like forwards, backwards up, down sideways. You, you know, like any business owner for this is your, your business, this particular event. And you need to know, you know, um, like the value of your event, Jordan, when you say, what do you need to know? And they start saying, we're going to hold the line on $10,000, you know, to be able to say, so we, my, my events, you know, $1.2 million, and you're going to walk away for 10 grand from your AP vendor. Like those kinds of conversations of really knowing, you know, or being able to say, so what you're telling me is with, you know, a hundred people, my people are paying $200 a person to have wifi.
Speaker 3 00:35:28 Does that make, does that make sense to you? How can I sell that? My virtual people have paid $49 for a ticket to log on for a few hours. Now you're telling me I have to pay $200 per person more that's I'm never going to be able to sell that. So I think sometimes breaking down those costs and kind of understanding, um, and again, from a hotel sales person, you want to lose a million dollar piece of business because of that 10 grand from your vendor, they should be able to put some, you know, pressure or have a conversation with the vendor to say, this is one piece of the puzzle, you know, and it's, and it's exorbitant, and it's gonna, it's gonna prevent us from having business, not only this one, but others. So I just, I think there's times when I get into negotiations with venues, when you start talking about that, like tell me how I would add $200 to my virtual ticket to cover the cost.
Speaker 3 00:36:15 You just told me, you know, or I've also, I've paid 2000 for wifi somewhere. And then $25,000 bid for the same exact wifi and show them that proposal, not who, but show them that and go, do you understand this as a marketplace? And that we have options and that, you know, and so I was like, I can see your face. Just that's, that's how I negotiate. And you gotta, you gotta break it down into nuggets. They can understand. And that makes common sense. Cause again, we want them to make money. They're our partners. We're not unreasonable. We also just have to work within the confines of, you know, what people are willing to pay to be there. And what is a reasonable cost for production and having that information available to you and itemized. I mean, because what, before this, we have, like you said, Avi, this is the price, but now it's like that breakdown because now if I know that my wifi is $200 a person, you know what I mean?
Speaker 3 00:37:06 There's a lot of room to really negotiate and signed out to the nickel, what everything is because within that AP cost. And I think before we didn't really do that, you know, we just accepted that, but now it's just, wifi is a component. And then what else? You know, what parts of the production can we negotiate? So having that, that information broken down, I think will be handy. And honestly, Jordan, I think every planner on here knows you have to negotiate and not accept the final number. Um, and being able to know where you can negotiate for pricing. So yeah, a lot of, um, uh, venue contracts. But I do try to coach my clients when they're negotiating for contracts to have it in there that, that we can bring in outside vendors at no additional fee. That to me is the most, like you could do whatever you want, as long as you have that line in there. Um, even if they have shadow fees, I don't mind those as much as long as I can put them in my contracts, but then also have it cost out. So, you know, it would be to bring in that whole production team and you can compare it against what they're charging you in house and just having that number usually gets them down to where you need them to be. Okay.
Speaker 0 00:38:23 I think the reason why hotels can charge so much for wifi is it's kind of an invisible commodity. You know, you see food, you can count the number of, you know, muffins and you can say, okay, I know X muffin, and this is what a muffin worth to me, but upload and download speed a lot of times, you know, it goes over people's heads, um, I guess physically and emotionally. Um, and so that's why it, I think that's the thing that varies so much between hotels. A lot of hotels will throw that in as a bonus, you know, free everything in, you know, the general session or any of the meeting space is, is absolutely included or they will upcharge it. And, you know, that's kind of what they hold over you, but you can't bring in outside, you can't bring in, um, you know, either outside production or, or wifi. And so I think just people knowing that there are options and that they can compare prices and that they can just, like Lynn said, break it down, break into chunks, you know, speaking, compare it to per person, if it makes it sound ridiculous. It probably is.
Speaker 3 00:39:22 I think also if you come in with a, a real specific aspect of connectivity, whether it's, you know, a hundred up a hundred down or turn up tenant down, you come in with that and they can't deliver, then you have the right to go to an outside vendor, right? Yeah, I would agree. And I think too, Joe, one of the things I want to point out is the tech support. You know, when we started doing virtual, I would say to these new virtual platforms, tell me about your support day of, you know, leading up to tell me about the resolution scenario planning of this. If this breaks, I think that we're going to have that same scenario happening. And in hotels, when we decide to get more bandwidth, to be able to do virtual and live together, I want to know that I've got a really savvy technician that, that lives in that hotel.
Speaker 3 00:40:12 You know, we had an event at a large brand with a thousand tech people and even the, you know, this was fully live, no virtual, but even that broke and there was support was, you know, in two times zones away. And I wanted to see that dashboard. I wanted to see what kind of speeds we were up against. I was asking all these questions and I literally had like a frontline AB guy that started two days prior. So it was really frustrating. And when you have a, your entire show go down because of a hotel wifi, you better have a solid plan of resolution and tech support. And I think that's going to be super critical. Tell me who I got in the saddle with me day of show. I want to know the banquet captain in case we run out of chicken. I want that same relationship with the technical person on your team that I feel comfortable could, could problem solve.
Speaker 1 00:41:03 And that's a great point. So then that begs the question as meeting planners, do you guys start to employ your own it professional that comes in with you every single time? So my example is this. I, I did a lot of work with Microsoft over the last number of years, and no matter where we were in the world, we had a team of four or five. It only people that their entire job was to make sure that the entire venue was wired, set, ready to go and was rock solid. And even with them, we would have issues from time to time in certain countries. So do you carry, like, do you basically have your own person that rolls in with you as an independent source independent of the venue that says, listen, you guys are telling me this is a hundred by a hundred and I can not get more than 50 by 50 there's something bottlenecking us here. We need to figure it out.
Speaker 2 00:41:58 Gordon, did we ever work on a Microsoft event again or not know it? I spent a decade with that and you're right. They bring their own teams. And I would say yes to what you're saying. My, my 2 cents is absolutely an independent technology and platform expert that can say this is going to work in this venue. We're going to be able to deliver a great show externally from this, from this actual bricks and mortar. Yeah.
Speaker 0 00:42:21 Well I think if you can bring that, that's great. I don't think that everyone has the budget to be able to employ someone full-time to come with them and to all their meetings just for it. Listen, that would be incredible. Um, I think, you know, even just the basics of, I'm not an it professional, but I know how to run a speed test on my phone. You know, I can run a speed test on my computer and I can point to it and I can say, this is the up and down that we were promised. And this is the up and down that we're getting. Look the, you know, it's right here on, not a lot of times we'll, you know, kind of put a fire under them to fix it. But just as important as knowing what's promised is knowing what they will do to mitigate or to fix it when it doesn't work or if it doesn't work.
Speaker 0 00:42:58 So just like Lynn was saying, you know, who's the person that I talked to, what are the steps that are going to be taken? If it doesn't work? How long is it going to take, how's it going to be off? You know, what are the backups? Um, you know, so these are all the important questions, just like you would ask for food and beverage. You need to have those questions now for, you know, to make sure that your hybrid meeting is, is, is going as well. Because again, the virtual attendees can not be an afterthought. They are just as important an audience as your onsite attendees.
Speaker 2 00:43:26 It's an, and a technical director or technical person has always been a part of, of the way we do business. So I always like, even without the virtual component, like to have a person that speaks that language on site at every show to make sure we're not missing something, because I didn't want them to sort of speak to me. I may not be able to understand it. So we carry that person. Now I see that being expanded with larger shows certainly, and especially broadcast like big broadcast you'd certainly would have a full it team, but you can afford it even a freelance, like just day of person to be there, to help you sort of interface with the onsite team, I think is invaluable. So I definitely think the it person having someone on hand, you know, that represents you is important because that same it person or the venue they're responsible for that venue. So, but we still have to test the speakers and making sure the camera's right, and everything is presented. Okay. So you definitely have to have someone. Um, and it's interesting too, because you know, we've done all of these virtual events now that we're
Speaker 5 00:44:32 Including our, our actual it department and events, but we didn't do that before. You know what I mean? We, as the, um, uh, leading department, we never really had to include it unless something was right now, they're involved in all our walkthroughs and our drive runs. And, you know, they, it seems like they're doing like double duty, you know, running it as far as, you know, within the company, but then it within, um, an actual event as well. Yeah. Along those same lines, um, my cousin works in it and he's actually calling me asking for a vent help. Cause he's being, he's being tasked with actually running the events as the it guy. So, so I've been, I've been giving him pointers and tips on how to, how to do these hybrid events without, with very little knowledge. Yeah. Well, it's interesting too, because it's, sometimes it's not a, an additional person it's like, Oh, now we've added more workloads to the it department. So they're getting now there's more event work when they, you know, before that wasn't their one of their duties. So it's interesting that the work is, is doubling up on the it department.
Speaker 1 00:45:44 Everything requires technology. Um, and it's just going to get more inundated with it, for sure. Um, so we've covered cost people, personnel who we need. What do you guys actually consider your options in the hybrid environment? Lynn earlier you mentioned hub and spoke, um, you know, different hotels have different ideas, but what do you guys see as high, or I should say, how many different options do you feel you have? And then what do you think are the options you're going to rely on the most as a planner and as someone recommending stuff to your clients who wants to take it anyway,
Speaker 0 00:46:22 I can talk. So I think there's, I mean, there's unlimited different, different options for hybrid. You know, there's a attendee hybrid where everyone is remote, you know, and maybe there's a couple of people in, so it's full hybrid where you have a group of people onsite in a hotel, and then you have a separate group of people who are going to be remote there's speaker hybrid, where the speakers are onsite and the speakers are all together, but all the attendees are remote there's hub and spoke where you have smaller groups of people who are kind of connected with the central, you know, idea, or there's the option of doing a hybrid event, a virtual event and a live event, but doing them at separate times. So you have basically, you're running the same event. You have the same speakers, you have a lot of the same content, but in order to facilitate a direct communication, it's not prerecorded it's live, but it's live to both the virtual audience and a, an in-person audience just that slightly separate times, maybe the next day or the next week.
Speaker 0 00:47:18 So there's so many different ways that you can think about it. Um, you just have to really take into account just like we were saying last week, what are your goals? Who are your audience? You know, what people's timelines like? You know, does it make sense to do, if I'm doing an eight hour a day, uh, virtual, uh, real life meeting, does it make sense to have the online component be eight hours as well? Or is that not as much of a value? So there's tons of options. And, you know, you have to think about what the sessions are going to be like. Is there going to be interaction between the two audiences or is it going to be the virtual audience kind of doing their thing in the on-site audience, doing their thing? Are there going to be opportunities for one-to-one? Um, so I think those are some of the things that you can kind of play with to really, to create the perfect, um, program that fits your needs.
Speaker 3 00:48:08 And that hybrid audio and audience engagement, I think is, is an area where technology needs to be better so that we can engage our virtual and engage our live together to really well. I mean, right now it's just not perfect. Yeah. I think it goes back to Jordan. When, you know, when we were deciding, you know, there was a live event structure when we were deciding to take it virtual, I think there had to be that high level goals set out, obviously in the strategies, but each element of the show needed to be evaluated to say, does this work in virtual? You know? And so I think that same exercise has to happen with your clients to be like, you know, what are the elements of your show and how does that best translate? Can we do that virtually? Can we do it live? Can we do it hybrid where we're, we're all experiencing at the same time, you know, we've got a client that's doing one of their features.
Speaker 3 00:49:00 They love is kind of, uh, ask the speaker when they leave the stage. That's such a big thing. And people go to the stage and ask the speakers. So we're doing it live where people can do that. And then we're broadcasting that the speaker will be in a virtual room to do Q and a ask the speaker after they leave the physical stage. So we're, we've got a studio set up and they're going from there to the studio to then do online, meet the speaker. And the other part, one other element we're doing is, um, in Atlanta, we're doing a mostly virtual and then we're having a huge party on it, lawn out, outside, and it's going to be after people have engaged all day in this really meaningful, um, content that they're going to go to this party. And it's got a huge open space and we think we can get a lot more people to come to the party portion of this.
Speaker 3 00:49:46 Whereas most of the day we believe there'll be online. So it just, I think you just have to take all of those elements and talk about whether they work in each, to each audience and where do they work well together? Like we're planning a really cool question and answer wall inside of a ballroom with people coming in virtually to be able to engage them into Q and a, and that in that way in a cool way. So there's just, there's so many opportunities, I think, to get creative and innovative around engagement. Yeah. Because you don't want either audience feeling like, Oh, wait, you're telling me, I went to one breakout session and people online got to watch the video recording about 25 of you all, all four breakouts at the same time on demand. Like you still have to make, we're really being clear about making sure everybody buys a virtual ticket and gets all the virtual stuff packaged up. And then those people are upgrading into that live event experience for the additional investment. That's kind of what our approach we're taking.
Speaker 5 00:50:45 Wow. So that makes sense because that's more like a clearer cut as an attended. I know when I'm getting, if I choose this as opposed to feeling like you're missing out on something, if you choose one or the other. So having that clear definition and that upgrade, I like that. So being able to say, you know, Hey, I'm going to upgrade into this. I think will give a better impression on what to expect on the attendee side.
Speaker 3 00:51:11 Well, and then we started talking about, there were so, so much uncertainty about when we could go live, right when we could have a live element. And I just kept advising the clients. Let's just assume everything is virtual and we will onboard and, you know, bring to the marketplace, this ability to attend live when we all feel comfortable. And then we can talk about what that additional cost is like upgrading at a concert to VIP or upgrading when you a buy your ticket to, you know, on a plane. And then you may want to upgrade to first class. We kind of are looking at it that way, that there's things in virtual you can not do as well. And so that this live ticket holder is going to have that added value of this rich networking experience and different activities that face-to-face. So therefore it's an upgrade in their ticket price and we do a lot of paid events. So it's a little different from you that have internal events,
Speaker 5 00:52:01 Right? Yeah. And then for us just, um, the biggest thing is the looking into the actual venue. I mean, before we would be like, you know, what's a trendy spot that we can have this, and now it's like, what are the capabilities of this video? And I feel like, you know, going forward, we're going to use the same venues over and over again. Um, I say venues because sometimes we don't use hotels. Um, a lot of times we'll have, um, annual events at a, at a venue, um, that people like, but I see that those venues are not, they're not going to work for us going forward right now, they're they don't have the capabilities for this hybrid program. So what's going to be interesting is doing the research and figuring it out, which of these venues are going to work for a hybrid event. I mean, we're looking at right now, what are, what are outside options? Like how can we have a, an event outside? How can we have our technology outside? I don't know if that's going to work, but that's something that is that option out there. And so we're going to be researching and looking into hotels, venues, even creative spaces. And like you said, Joe, maybe a, uh, an external company, maybe a production company, that's now they're in the venue space. So that's going to be interesting going forward, what that looks like. Yeah.
Speaker 4 00:53:18 I wonder if the V companies are gonna, are gonna have a, an it component that's specifically geared that,
Speaker 5 00:53:26 That way they can, they can do whatever they need to, um, to do live streaming events. Yeah. I've heard mentioned, yeah, go ahead. I'm sorry. I was going to say two quick points. We just did an event on a side of a mountain with 20 speakers who came in from all over crazy parts of the world. And, you know, the techno technological needs for that work. Something I had never experienced before, but it works. And number two, typically don't give up on your independent venues because you bring in your own team and make it work and support those venues. Cause we run three venues and I don't want to see everybody running to a hotel just because, you know, they make it easy. I want the independent venues to continue to get the business if they can. Absolutely.
Speaker 1 00:54:18 I think technology, I mean, if we really look at it, the technology has increased to a point now where we don't have to be stuck in hotels. I mean, truly, if you think about microwave technology, you think about wifi, you think about everything else. Um, and I say stuck in hotels. I don't Sarah. I'm not trying to knock on, you know, not going to hotels, but at the same time wireless technology, I mean, that really is the direction they're trying to push everything. Everything goes wireless, everything without wires. And so if we have technology that we can get the speeds and the reliability, which real reliability is really the greatest portion of this, this would allow us to pick places that before were never actually viable because you couldn't get either enough people there or you weren't able to get the reliable technology to actually take the event to that place. And so, um, I really opens things up, I think, um, and linear, independent venues, I believe, uh, could see a, actually a better, you know, a better outcome from this versus not so that we actually can create some really cool experiences for people.
Speaker 5 00:55:30 Yeah. What was interesting is the, um, the numbers are gonna change. So a lot of these independent venues, they couldn't accommodate us originally because we wanted a hundred percent ballroom, but now we're not doing these hundred people events in ballrooms quite yet. So those independent venues that can do, you know, 20 or 30 people I think felt don't get in and get the business because it's going to be a smaller event that they now are able to like put their bid in. So it'll be interesting going back to your technology. Oh, sorry. Go ahead. Go ahead. You're good. Oh, going back to your technology speak. I was, uh, I was actually just reading an article all about, um, how VR goggles and, uh, Facebook and Apple are all coming out with these products that are gonna kind of change the way the consumer, uh, attends events, where they can to a basketball game, or
Speaker 4 00:56:24 They can go to a concert, um, from their living room. And I think that's a, that's an untapped market that we need to look at as event planners, where we can set up a virtual hub. People can mingle around as their avatar or whatever, and, and still, uh, you know, meet up, do breakouts. They can go into the breakout rooms and have those events. Um, so I think that that's an interesting, uh, thing that we're, we're just scratching the surface on. Well, I don't know if you saw last week, but Microsoft is putting a lot of money into holograms to be able to pull the people into your space. So that's a different type of hybrid experience, right? Yep. Yeah, absolutely.
Speaker 0 00:57:06 And Jordan, I definitely don't think that people are ever going to stop going to hotels. I don't want them to, uh, what I was saying is, you know, I mean, look at us, we're all in our homes who would have thought that years ago, we'd be producing a, a podcast or producing a webinar out of our homes. You know, you'll see newscasters broadcasting out of their homes and their kid walks. And so really the technology doesn't make it so everyone can basically bring a meeting from anywhere. Um, so I, I do love the idea of, you know, keeping those, the secondary venues or keeping those outside venues as an option. I think, you know, we've talked a lot about the technology and the wifi and, and the physical infrastructure, but I think the, the main component really is what that makes it happen is the people and having the people with the right skillset to be able to, to bring this in terms of the creativity that's needed to shift over and include everyone. And, you know, the hybrid meetings, as well as the people who, who know how to run the technology. And I think having something as simple as, you know, are your MCs prepared to how to engage a virtual audience? Are they going to, you know, speak out to the people who are attending virtually as well as the people who are in the meeting rooms are, you know, are they going to make people have that feeling? I think the people are just as much an important, uh, aspect as having good wifi. Yeah,
Speaker 1 00:58:18 Very much so. So then how long do you think hybrid carries us forever? One year, three years, five years, 10 years, you know, I mean, D do you think this is just boom, we're going to make a change. This is the way it's going to be forever and it's going to push forward. You know, we're not Nostradamus, but, you know, understanding that we don't know what the next five years looks like. Um, do we just plan on, you know, Hey, this is the way it is going forward.
Speaker 4 00:58:44 I think it completely depends on the clients. I mean, I had expected 10 years ago, virtual to have been the norm with everything even pre pandemic. I thought where we were 10 years ago that we would have a live streaming component to all of our events. And we really didn't. So I think that you'll have clients that really need to get people together and that's what they want. And they want an intimate in-person meeting. And then you'll have other clients who maybe rely heavily on fundraising who want a larger audience who need to have that reach to create more sponsorship opportunities. That will, but
Speaker 2 00:59:22 The wonderful thing is that they have the option now and really good options. Um, so I don't think you see it going anywhere. I think it will be an added on component to certain types of meetings. Got it.
Speaker 0 00:59:34 Okay. Agreed. And I think there are certain things that really, you just can't replace face to face. Like I don't see incentive trips being replaced by hybrid events. No one wants to pretend that they're in Hawaii while they're sitting in their living room in New Jersey. Um, but you know, there's Def there just like Lynn said, having the option, this is just another tool we've added to our tool belt. This was something that was unexpected when the pandemic started, no one thought they would have to learn this, but now that they have it, it's such a valuable tool
Speaker 2 01:00:02 And hybrid is so fun. It's been fun to kind of come back and start rethinking live experiences. But, you know, David Stark's that embarrassed, like, you know, obviously the pandemic was awful, but who would have ever thought we would have had had a year to go away and think about our businesses and the way we wanted our businesses and to work on a product for our businesses that just as an added piece in the toolbox. So in some ways it was a blessing for the events industry. Um, you know, in many ways it was bad, obviously it was from a financial standpoint for many vendors, but I'm just so proud of our industry for, for pushing through and persevering and, um, and really working hard on this next level of, uh, of attendee engagement. I think it's going to be an amazing yeah, for sure.
Speaker 2 01:00:48 Absolutely. I do think hybrid is going to, at least for the next few years going to remain an option and it's going to come down to budgets. I think, you know, companies, especially, you know, with internal, um, companies are going to sit down with a budget and say, you know, okay, we've been doing hybrid events, does this make sense to continue or to, you know, separate the two. So I think at least for the next few years, we'll see that. And they'll be some decisions made, you know, after that. Yeah. But I also, if I can add one more point, I do see pricing coming down on technology. I mean, pieces of equipment like stream yard or where we can go in and purchase a subscription to something that's $5,000 for a year. And then you can do as many events as you want, and you don't necessarily have to have a whole big virtual team on the other end. So I do think pricing will adjust and we can just add it in as a line item. Like we would do a photo booth going forward. So I agree, Lynn and I think options will get bigger too, as more people dive into this new market. Um, if we do see some of those alternative businesses getting into this, we'll see a lot of different options as well.
Speaker 0 01:02:01 Oh, we've already seen that. I mean, how many different demos have you done for different virtual platforms or different, you know, production tools? Um, I think hybrid events will look different in the future, but I think they'll definitely be around, I think a company that doesn't, uh, take advantage of adding some kind of hybrid component to events will now be losing out on either an audience or losing out on opportunities for kind of increasing their reach. Yeah. So whether it's the entire event is going to be virtual and on-site and hybrid, or whether it's going to be different components of it that can kind of have other opportunities for engagement. I definitely think if anything, it'll just, it'll give us more options in the future.
Speaker 3 01:02:41 Very interesting to revisit this conversation a year from now and see how many we had no idea what we were talking about one or two ways, Hey,
Speaker 0 01:02:54 But I I'm, I'm looking to buy a car and I did a virtual tour, uh, you know, a three 60 AI tour of the car who would have thought that's what I'd be doing recently, you know, instead of a test drive. So we have w there's so much that's coming up, that we're going to be really excited and surprised about. And I think as long as we keep our eyes open, I mean, meeting planners, we're known for being creative and for pivoting it's, it's what we do. So I don't see it. I don't see it ending anytime soon.
Speaker 1 01:03:19 Yes. You may not be figuring out how to get a giraffe to the events so that they can bring it on stage while a motorcycle jumps across the flaming, the flaming ring of fire. Hey, you were at my event last year.
Speaker 3 01:03:34 Um,
Speaker 1 01:03:34 Um, but ladies, thank you so much, Joe. Thank you so much for coming on last, last words real quick. Let's just go around, we'll start with Sarah, your, your final thoughts on hybrid and what it's going to be, what we should look for going forward over the next 12 months.
Speaker 0 01:03:51 Um, no, what your goals are for your event and what can be converted to virtual and what can't, don't try to force something, uh, and try to take advantage of all the different options that you have in terms of platform, production and engagement. Awesome. Tiffany,
Speaker 3 01:04:09 I would say even before jumping into doing the research and polling your audience, making sure that they are comfortable and ready to move on to that hybrid position. Um, and then going from there. Very cool Lynn. Yeah. And I think, you know, hybrid events are here to stay. I mean, it means more sponsors, more audience engagement, you know, greater ROI for your, for your people, but you do have to really, um, talk to your client and make sure the goals are clear from the onset. Um, so you, you know, what level of service to sort of give them
Speaker 1 01:04:41 The love that Joe, your thoughts?
Speaker 4 01:04:43 Um, I would say because we're in the wild West of hybrid events, you know, be looking for those innovators, look for those guys that, that, uh, or gals that are, that are, uh, coming up with new ideas and, and turn it on its head. You know, I think there's a lot out there that we haven't even thought of yet and somebody is going to show us face and, and, uh, we're gonna be able to do really, really cool things with a lot of people involved.
Speaker 1 01:05:07 For sure. I know for me, even just listening to you guys talk about this stuff, like my mind has been completely expanded in what is possible and what's considered hybrid because I had like picture of like four different things and I'm like, well, it's this, this, this or this. And that's it. And then Sarah, you're like, well, you could do it this way and this way and this, and I was like, I didn't think about that. I didn't think about that. I didn't think. And so, um, she huge help for me just to better understand where we're going, what we're gonna do. Um, I'm gonna steal some of the things that you said, Sarah, I'm just going to tell you right now, I've got a, I've got a training with a bunch of meeting planners in July that we're going to be down at the special event in Miami. And I'm actually doing a whole thing where we're going to do a whole session on talking about hybrid, what to do with it, how to do it, and then helping to get people better prepared for it. So thank you for that. I appreciate it. I'll credit. You don't worry.
Speaker 6 01:05:56 Well, the good news is I'm free in July, so I'm happy to pop down to Miami and join you. Okay. Copy that. Hey, we'll see you tomorrow.
Speaker 1 01:06:03 Um, well, awesome. Well thank you so much. I appreciate everything you guys are awesome. I apologize. We ran over again. Uh, but it's a lot of fun and uh, all of you guys are rock stars in my book and I really appreciate it. So thank you so much. I hope you guys have a wonderful afternoon.
Speaker 6 01:06:20 Thank you guys. Have a great afternoon.
Speaker 1 01:06:24 No matter your opinion of hybrid, that's here to stay. So remember if you can't do anything about it, don't whine. Don't complain. Get out there and learn no more today and more tomorrow than you did yesterday so that you can be better informed for your clients, your customers and your colleagues stay up on all the most recent information. Find people that know what they're talking about and go after it because your next gig had better be better than your last you're great professionals. I believe in you. And I know that next time you'll be more gig. Ready? Have a great day. We'll see you soon.
Speaker 6 01:07:01 <inaudible>.
