While the notion of hybrid events was quite novice a few years ago, it is now on every event organizer’s mind, almost becoming the ‘new normal’.

Whether it's for internal seminars, conventions, trade shows, product launches or even team buildings, the hybrid format can be adapted to fit any type of event. In addition to its adaptability, it offers serious advantages to reach an audience looking for flexibility. But why are hybrid press conferences worth it? How does go about creating a hybrid press conference? Let’s find out.

5 reasons to choose a hybrid format for your next press conference

1. Offer journalists flexibility 🤸

There's no better way than a hybrid press conference to reach more of your target audience. Why? Because, thanks to this format, you will be able to satisfy two types of journalists:

• Those who, because of economic or geographical constraints or simply because of lack of time, would like to attend the event from home or from the office;
• Those who prefer to be on site to address the key speakers directly and meet face-to-face with your PR team and fellow journalists.

Providing journalists with options to attend a press event is also a step towards enhancing their experience: I can participate where I want and how I want! What more could I ask for? Oh yes, an on-demand version of the press conference so that I can go back and watch key information for my article and of course watch the event whenever I’d like if I was unable to attend. 😉

Allowing journalists to participate remotely also means there will be less people physically present, and therefore the possibility to facilitate on-site interactions. You will offer your in-person guests a more intimate experience which is more conducive to meetings and exchanges. And networking is an important part of the job. Of course, this doesn’t mean that journalists participating remotely cannot interact with speakers and other journalists. If you’re using a virtual and hybrid event management platform, they can easily speak up via the integrated chat or “raise your hand” features if they are participating online.

2. Go international 🌍

Still in the perspective of making your event accessible to a wider audience, the hybrid format is also a way to bring your event to an international level. If you're organizing a press conference, it's because you want to get important information to as many people as possible. Making your press conference hybrid will allow international media to participate and thus get to know your brand better.

Broadcasting your event beyond borders is a very good way to considerably develop your brand awareness, especially if your news can favor other countries. Don't forget that one of the main objectives of your press conference is to get as much media coverage as possible: this is the number one performance indicator that will determine if your event is a success.

3. Turn your press conference into an eco-friendly event 🍃

Adopting the hybrid format also means reducing the environmental impact of your event by limiting its carbon footprint, especially due to business travel. Moving towards greener events is a shift that is slowly but surely becoming part of organizer’s concerns. Hybrid events are part of the solutions available to help reduce the environmental impact of businesses.

And your guests will be all the happier! 64% of event attendees are more interested in attending sustainable conferences according to this study.

"Climate or events? With hybrid events, it's up to each organizer to find the right mix that allows them to control their carbon footprint, while maintaining the pleasure and impact of physical meetings." Beatrice Eastham - Founder of Green Events

4. Multiply channels to gather data 👩‍💻

Collecting participant feedback is essential for any type of event, but it is particularly the case for press conferences. Indeed, you cannot forget that you are addressing opinion leaders. You need to know about their experience at your event and, of course, get a sense of their intention to communicate on it.

You can also take advantage of both physical and digital levers to collect data and therefore doubling the means of obtaining information! For example, you can track the online behavior of your remote participants (how many participants attended, how long they stayed connected to your live stream, their engagement rates,...) and collect information from on-site participants (via Q&A sessions, polls, surveys...).

All this information will allow you to:

• Evaluate the success of your hybrid press conference;
• Leverage the data to continue communicating with both of your audiences after the event is over in a more personalized way.

5. Reduce costs 💸

When providing journalists with the opportunity to attend your press conference either physically or remotely, you reduce:

• Venue costs (less participants = less space needed);
• F&B costs;
• Accommodation costs;
• Printing costs for press release or press kits (documents that you can add to your press conference’s dedicated website for both physical and remote participants).

All these savings will cover the cost of your hybrid press conference management solution and then some, and free up budget for other press events! Perhaps you limited the number of press relations activities this year? Well now you can add some extra events.

In addition to simplifying the organization of hybrid press conferences, a solution such as Eventdrive can also be used for both your 100% in-person and online press events. You and your PR agency can use one solution to manage all your events.

Discover our 7 tips to organize a successful hybrid press conference !

How can an EMS help with your hybrid press conferences?

Control your press event budget without any headaches 💰

From venue and AV equipment costs to food and beverage costs, there are several spendings that are included in the budget of your hybrid press conference, and, of course tracked. Whether it is to establish an estimated budget, compare several quotes or create budget templates for your next press conferences, an EMS is the ideal tool to save you time and money.

The most obvious benefit of using an Event Management Software is that it allows you to automate all the essential but time-consuming tasks related to managing your event budget. For example, it is possible to streamline your internal quote and invoice validation process.

Create a dedicated website for your press conference 💻

A website is the front door to an event and can also be the case for your press conference. Websites are hardly created for press conferences for lack of time and tools. Journalists will usually not stay there for long, so you need a tool that’ll allow you to easily create a dedicated website for your press conference. With an EMS, you can do this in a few clicks. Make sure you offer concise content that is easy to find on your press event’s website.

You can also add information about the topics that will be discussed at the press conference, information about speakers, and files such as press releases, press kits, product sheets, official photos or any other relevant documents.

Finally, thanks to Event Management Software, you can customize the design of this website to match your company’s visual identity to immerse journalists in your brand.

Manage registrations 💪

With an EMS, you can create and send different registration forms depending on the type of audience you are addressing. For example, you can send a different form to general and trade journalists because you might not need to acquire the same information depending on their profile. Once they have registered to your press conference, you can also add an iCal file to the online submission confirmation message and confirmation email. The iCal file is a feature available in Eventdrive to allow journalists to add the event to their calendar, which tends to fill up very quickly.

The data collected via your registration forms is centralized in your EMS and is also aggregated and displayed in a dashboard for a bird’s eye view. You can also create groups to easily segment your participants. You can have a group for in-person and a group for remote participants, a group for trade and a group general press journalists and ****send relevant emails to each group. Of course, journalists can be part of multiple groups.

Become independent of your marketing or communication’s teams tools ✊

Can I send automatic reminders to journalists who have not confirmed their presence yet? It's possible with an EMS. Can I send a specific email to remote participants? It’s also possible. Can I create branded and personalized emails that I can send before the big day to create hype around your press conference? Also possible. An EMS will prevent you from relying on other teams and their tools and will help you to create your own branded campaigns in only a few minutes!

One tool to manage and centralize everything in one place📍

You often have to use several tools when organizing a press event. A tool to communicate about your press conference, to broadcast it, to create interactions between journalists or even to measure its performance. You may even have to juggle between Excel files, inboxes and various marketing tools used internally to update the RSVP list. That’s a hassle.

With an EMS like Eventdrive, all these tools are combined into one and you are able to centralize all the information related to your press conference and journalists in one spot!

Discover how La Société Générale increased its productivity thanks to Eventdrive's EMS!

Take better control of your press conference management 🗓

Once your hybrid press conference has become a success (partly due to your EMS 😁), you will be convinced by its performance and definitely organize new ones. Since one of the purposes of using an EMS for press events is to save time for PR Managers, the tool can also be used to duplicate a previous press conferences and create different models depending on the type of press event. You won't have to re-enter the same information, recreate the same forms, the same budget template and you can easily track your PR event performance by category... Time is money!

Easily follow up after the hybrid press conference 📊

Once the event is over, you can continue to use the EMS’s integrated features. For example, you have the option to use the event management software to record your event broadcast and offer an on-demand version to guests who did not attend the press conference or want to go back to highlights of your event. You can also add a gallery of photos taken on the day of the event or even follow up via email campaigns with journalists who haven’t published an article about your event.

In summary

Opting for a hybrid format for your press conference is:

• Offering flexible options to your journalists;
• Scaling your event internationally to increase the number of press articles that your PR efforts can generate.

Opting for an Event Management Software for organizing your press conference is:

• Optimizing the management of your press conference;
• Publishing a dedicated website with relevant information for journalists;
• Centralizing registration data;
• Automating essential but time-consuming tasks (sending invitations, reminders, notifications, etc.);
• Customizing your communication to match your brand and sending the right messages to the right audience;
• Easily collaborating with your colleagues and your press agency;
• Creating templates to create your next press conference in record time.

Want to talk about organizing your next press conference? We're here to listen and provide advice. Contact our experts!