International hybrid event - how to and what not!

In the morning there was common programme: 3 speakers in Zoom. After that each partner could continue onsite or online locally with their own local partners. The webinar speakers spoke about potential, motivation and co-creation related to remote and hybrid work and presented some projects and ideas that are being implemented at the moment.

About arrangements and organizing an hybrid event:
– hybrid organizer should have 2 laptops, the other one sharing powerpoints with onsite-people and the other one for managing the online-event
– it is good to have backup to share the screen in case of problems
– having a lunch meeting with the local participants after the webinar is easier to organize than a breakfast onsite before the event
– it is interesting to see people joining the webinar in different places
– Zoom stream was working well
– it is good to have separate people to take care of online part and others to make sure onsite everything is running smoothly

We got good feedback about the speakers and the topics. They were chosen to be remote work related but with different perspectives. In addition to the keynote speaker we wanted to give a chance for DistanceLAB target groups and local partners to present current issues they are dealing with. It was important for us to have speakers from different countries and with different backgrounds to keep the webinar part lively and interesting and for it to represent us as an international project.

The participants were impressed with the speakers and said they gave a good overview of the various tools and methods that are being created. The presentations worked well in initiating discussions how can we embrace both digital technologies and remote work even more. The topics were found useful and there were lots of practical issues that were presented in an interesting way.

Especially the interactive part was mentioned in several feedbacks, it was easy to participate, people felt involved and became more interested, it was a good example how to keep people active in hybrid events. Afterwards the participants got all the speakers’ presentations.

Partners organised discussions or workshops after the webinar. The discussions were about:
– how digital technologies can support companies both in remote work and in general performance increase
– experiences and potential synergies with DistanceLAB project
– getting back to the offices and social life after the pandemic
– DistanceLAB pilots
– challenges and bright sides of remote work and services
– management of a hybrid team, experiences, gains and pains of hybrid/online work and teams’ management

We prepared the programme and social media ads about the event, and all partners also marketed in their local channels. Most partners used social media channels and direct personal contacts.

Not all partners got the number of participants that they wished, this is something we should still consider – how to reach out and make the target group feel the importance of getting together and discussing. Some partners managed to gather a good crowd. In some cases it might be a good idea to organise this kind of events together with an existing cluster or network, and then expand the invitation to other companies as well.

All in all the event was succesful and the concept worked so well we have agreed to organise another one again next year. It is an interesting way to combine international and local, and when sharing the webinar part, you feel like part of some bigger entity, but then you can do the discussion part in your own language and adapt what you have heard into your own local reality.

Programme Manual Online

Choose