Hybrid Events
Hybrid events in Gradual combine the features and functionality of virtual and in-person events into one. Provide streaming and virtual engagement access to those attending virtually and the physical address and check-in solutions for those attending the event in person.
Agenda sessions, ticket types and registration forms can all be controlled by their attendance mode to curate the event experience for those logging in from home versus joining you on site.
How to Build a Hybrid Event
You will build hybrid events in your dashboard. It follows a very similar pattern to building a Livestream event, with the addition of some elements of an in-person event build.
Navigate to the Events page in your dashboard and click on + Create an Event on the top-right next to the Settings button. Then select Hybrid as the Event Type.
You will be proceeded to the General Info page, where you can add the event description, cover image, and tags, as well as configure access settings and organizers. Since there will be in-person elements, you have options to enter an address for the event on this page. This address information is shared with those that register for the in-person elements of the event.
Below the Basic Settings box, you will see the Advanced Settings box. In Advanced Settings, you can adjust when attendees can join the livestream element (virtual), if you'll be accepting and processing registrations in Gradual (recommended), and the ability to customize the URL slug for the event.
Attendance Experience & Modes
How the attendee joins and engages with the event is their experience or attendance mode. There are three modes for a hybrid event in Gradual, that will be important to note for the agenda, ticket types, registration forms, and event emails.
- Hybrid
- The hybrid experience is for agenda sessions and a ticket type structure that applies to both in-person and virtual attendees.
- Virtual
- The virtual experience is for agenda sessions and a ticket type structure that applies to only those logging in virtually.
- In Person
- The in-person experience is for agenda sessions and a ticket type structure that applies to only those who will be on-site and in person.
Event Settings
Some settings in the dashboard are affected by the attendee experience or mode.
Agenda and Stage Settings
The agenda for a hybrid event can include sessions that only those on site and in person will attend, those virtual experiences that are only available to those logging in online, and sessions that are available and attended by both types of attendees.
Stage Settings
It's best to start in Stage Settings so you can set up the days, locations and tracks for each of the three experiences.
- Days: If your event spans more than one day, or you'd like to change the title of the day(s), you can make that update here.
- Stages: Stages are important as they are the locations for each agenda session. You will need to select which experience the location or stage is associated with when adding stages in hybrid agendas.
If you are hosting in-person sessions in a certain room or location, you'll want to build a stage for that, or if your virtual attendees are viewing content on multiple stages, you'll need to build a stage for each of those streams. A hybrid stage is accessible to those in person and virtual and must include the stage name (virtual) and the on-site space name (in person) when building.
Tracks
Tracks are optional and can be built to organize or group agenda items by topics, attendee type, or categories.
Agenda
Each agenda session must be associated with an attendance mode - hybrid, in-person only, or virtual only as that's what will be displayed and available to each experience.
Note: You cannot make changes to the session's experience - or attendance mode - once it's saved. You can recreate the session with the correct experience selected, and delete the incorrect one from the agenda.
When adding agenda types, you will select the Date (days) and Stage to associate it with the right experience. Those selections will also appear in the agenda in the dashboard to help you see which type of attendee the session applies to, and where it's being held.
Ticket Types
You can create different ticket types depending on the attendance mode, charge for different tickets, etc. using Ticket Types in the Ticket Setup menu.
Learn more about ticket types here.
Note: The Virtual Ticket menu item refers to creating a virtual ticket graphic and ticket page for registrants.
Registration Forms
You can create custom registration forms which are dependent on the type of ticket the attendee selects during registration. This allows you to collect different information from those attending in person, versus virtual attendees, or at different levels of ticketing.
Learn more about building registration forms here.
Event Emails
The automated event emails - confirmation and reminders - that an attendee will receive depend on their attendance mode.
In-person attendees will receive only the address/location details for the in-person sessions, while virtual attendees will only receive the link to join virtually. Those attending as hybrid will receive both the address/location for the in-person sessions and also the link to join virtually.
All attendees, no matter their attendance mode, will receive the survey email if it is enabled.
Check-In
Those attendees who register for the in-person or hybrid experience will appear in the check-in list in the dashboard and the Gradual Check-In app can be used for kiosk-mode check in on site.
For other details on building the event in your dashboard, reference the resource on creating a livestream event and an in-person event.
Attendee Experience
Registration
Members of your community will sign up and register for the event just like any other event in Gradual. If you have created event registration forms (dependent on ticket types and attendance modes) the platform will display those custom questions to the correct attendees depending on the ticket they select. All confirmed registrants will appear in the event dashboard in the Attendee tab and you can manually add or bulk upload registrants in the dashboard following these steps.
Agenda
The agenda will indicate which elements and sessions are for which audience and will be accessible to only those who should have access to them.
Here is an example of the agenda in the virtual event environment:
In-Person Attendees
Those who are attending the event in person will receive the location details via automated email confirmation, and event reminders (if enabled). They will also receive a calendar invite if the Google Calendar integration is enabled, with the location of the event listed.
Virtual Attendees
Those who are attending the event virtually will receive the login event URL via automated email confirmation, and event reminders (if enabled). They will also receive a calendar invite if the Google Calendar integration is enabled, with the URL of the event listed as the location.
They will log in to the event environment and view the livestream elements, join meeting rooms, roundtables, and 1:1 matches just like they would a livestream event.
Hybrid Attendees
Those who are attending the event as hybrid attendees will receive the login event URL AND the location details via automated email confirmation, and event reminders (if enabled). They will also receive a calendar invite if the Google Calendar integration is enabled, with both the location and the event URL.
For those sessions they're viewing or engaging with virtually - they will log in to the event environment and view the live stream elements, join meeting rooms, roundtables, and 1:1 matches just like they would a live stream event.
For those sessions they're attending in person - they will check in on-site at the event, and engage live.
Gradual Apps
The Gradual Go in-event mobile and the Gradual Check-In app are now available for hybrid events!