Hybrid events: It’s time to get your hands dirty

Singapore is gearing up to host its first large-scale hybrid trade show for 2021 with Geo Connect Asia, an event for the geospatial industry, set to take place from 24 to 25 March.

Following the country’s first hybrid pilot, TravelRevive, last November, Geo Connect Asia will test new meeting formats among its 1,000 physical visitors and 1,200 attendees, along with wristbands to track visitors’ movements and new apps that alert organisers when safe distancing is breached.

Prototyping location-tracking technology at a geospatial event may seem like a no-brainer, but this tech is almost a year in the making, with a host of public-private partnerships set-up to redefine the future of events and travel.

Singapore’s Emerging Stronger Taskforce was established in the early days of Covid-19, bringing together industry bodies, such as the Singapore Association of Convention & Exhibition Organisers & Suppliers (SACEOS) and government agencies including the Ministry of Health (MOH) and the Singapore Tourism Board (STB).

Since October 2020, STB has been accepting applications from event organisers to pilot MICE events of up to 250 attendees. Close to 50 hybrid events have now taken place in the Lion City, including Singapore International Energy Week 2020, and PCMA Convening Leaders 2021.

STB is betting big on hybrid. Executive director, exhibition and conferences, Andrew Phua said: “We expect hybrid events, which blend virtual and physical elements, will remain the norm, and the integration of technology into the visitor experience will also become mainstream.”

Learning by doing

SACEOS, meanwhile, is leading the charge with its Industry Resilience Roadmap, which features hybrid event solutions to help event professionals “prepare for a new world order”.

“The [safety] protocols that we’ve become accustomed to over the past 12 months will be with us even in a vaccinated world,” said president Aloysius Arlando. “This underscores the need for us to think deep and hard about what new business models and capabilities will be needed.”

With the government’s Job Support Scheme winding down, he said there is now an added imperative for local event companies to “build resilience and capitalise on growth opportunities [via dedicated innovation grants and upskilling schemes]”.

During the Government’s budget announcement last month, Singapore’s deputy prime minister Heng Swee Keat highlighted a distinct move from ‘preserving jobs’ to ‘transforming jobs’. In a similar vein, the hybrid event pilot programme is meant to encourage innovation among the MICE industry.

Unfortunately, Arlando believes too many event professionals are still waiting to “return to normal”.

“As an industry, we are still trying to come to grips with the new value proposition of blending virtual and physical and how to become a systems integrator — which often requires a whole new skillset.”

For Arlando, the pilot programme provides a safe space for planners, venues and tech providers to experiment and “convert unknowns into knowns”. When it was launched, the programme focused on creative ways to implement safety measures. Now it’s being dialled up to address commercial viability.

“We all want to eventually return to pre-Covid days, but waiting on the basis of hope is not going to get us there. That’s why we need to get our hands dirty.”

Veemal Gungadin, CEO and founder of event technology company GlobalSign.in and virtual event platform GEVME, has been involved in several pilot events and commends STB’s agile methodology.

The biggest learning curve: cost.

“The cost of hybrid events can be two or three times more than a traditional event,” he said. “Workload often increases, but organisers don’t necessarily make more money, especially as there is an impression [among attendees] that online is free.”

To ease the pain, Gungadin says the industry needs to find solutions that allow for economies of scale. This is where the growing trend around hybrid event studios can be helpful —especially when packages include hardware (LED and green screens) as well as video production and streaming services.

Following the likes of the Sands Expo & Convention Centre and Singapore EXPO, more and more hotels are jumping on the hybrid bandwagon.

Several properties — including Mandarin Oriental Singapore, InterContinental Singapore and JW Marriott South Beach — have already converted underused meeting space into specialised studios for both hybrid and virtual events.

Margaret Heng, executive director of the Singapore Hotel Association and CEO of the Singapore Hotel and Tourism Education Centre (SHATEC) has already revised the school’s curricula in response to the pandemic — and hybrid events are part of the mix.

“There is a conscious effort to imbue technological considerations and emerging skills into the existing suite of modules,” she said.

“Increasingly, sales teams have to be more tech savvy to advise customers on available technology, such as the use of green screens, live streaming and virtual reality, as well as the positioning of cameras to abide by zoning guidelines for physical attendees.”

She added: “From the hotel industry’s perspective, we envisage that our future MICE workforce is a team of highly-skilled professionals, who are proficient in using innovative digital solutions while delivering the hospitality excellence that Singapore is renowned for.”

Customer centricity

Clarion Events Asia managing director, Richard Ireland, believes the hybrid event pilot programme is “critically important” to the industry’s post-pandemic recovery as it fosters a spirit of experimentation.

Clarion organises events in the energy, public sector, health and electronics industries, and its upcoming InsureTech Connect Asia (16-17 June) is also part of STB’s pilot programme.

Like many, Clarion bolstered its digital offering in 2020 (after acquiring California-based Quartz Events, which has thrived in the digital space). But when it comes to future planning, Ireland isn’t putting his eggs all in one basket.

“Our industry is still in a state of transformation, so it’s very difficult to predict what the future will look like… ultimately, the customer will decide.”

He also questions the general understanding of what constitutes a ‘hybrid event’.

“The evolution of ‘hybrid’ must be contextualised around the customer’s needs. These can be online or offline, live or on-demand. Hybrid isn’t just about blending physical and virtual, it’s about providing versatility around engagement.

“The crucial question is: What is the right hybrid model for your customers? Who are you trying to serve? Amid all the change that has occurred in the last 12 months, this objective remains the same.”

The long haul

While acknowledging the support of STB and the Singapore Land Authority in launching Geo Connect Asia, Montgomery Asia event director, Rupert Owen, isn’t entirely convinced that the hybrid model is here to stay.

“Geo Connect Asia is a brand new event built from the ground up, and in the process the format has pivoted from a traditional meeting to one in which matchmaking in the live and virtual [worlds] come together.

“While we do not believe this is the future of exhibitions, as a business we see that the ‘small is better’ label optimises current market circumstances, where there is pent-up demand to restore face-to-face meetings across borders,” Owen said.

SACEOS’ Arlando and Clarion’s Ireland, meanwhile, view hybrid events along a sliding scale — dialling up virtual components when needed and introducing physical meetings where possible.

As far as Gungadin is concerned, more experimentation is needed. “We keep talking about reimagining event formats, but monetisation has to happen.”