Top 6 Hybrid Meeting Tips: No more Zoom and Gloom

“Hybrid Meetings” are nothing new in the realm of off-site gatherings. A conference call during an in-person meeting technically makes it hybrid. However, we’re now in an era where the frequency, intricacy, and importance of a hybrid setup for a meeting has been elevated. This has meant that many meeting planners are stressing about how to pull off the perfect hybrid meeting. Thankfully, Catalyst Ranch is here to help! I’m going to give you our top 6 most important tips to pull off a hybrid meeting with the least amount of stress possible. Let’s dive right in!

Map it out

When we first start to plan out a hybrid meeting the most important place to start is figuring out HOW you want things to go. For example, what do you want your virtual attendees to see from their vantage point? Do you want them to see the in-person attendees? Is it more important that they watch the presenter move around? Is your presenter going to be virtual? What do you want to see from them? Do you need to have breakouts during the session? Who should be in those breakouts? Take some time to mentally walk through the entire meeting day and figure out exactly what it is that you want. This way, when you reach out to your venue the event tech can get the best possible picture of your meeting and help you pull it all off without any issues. 

Do a test run

To some their anxieties might make this a no-brainer, but it still goes without saying that you have to test things out as soon as possible in order to make sure that everything functions properly. This goes for your meeting venue as well as your virtual attendees. I always suggest setting up a tech run-through with a venue so that you both know that the way things are set up is exactly what you want and that everything looks and sounds rights.  But you should also make sure that anyone joining virtually does one for themselves as well. Make sure those mics and cameras are working. Make sure that whatever platform you’ve chosen is already setup and updated on everyone’s computers. Everything you test ahead of time is one less thing to worry about the day of. 

Have help

You don’t have to do it alone and you SHOULDN’T! When a planner takes on a hybrid meeting, they are really taking on the job of two meetings at once. If they themselves aren’t especially tech-savvy this can make it even more challenging. So, get help. This can be accomplished in a few ways. A top suggestion of ours is to have a “co-host” who can be virtual or on-site who is tasked specifically with engaging your virtual attendees. They can answer chat questions, provide tech support, run breakout rooms, distribute links to necessary materials, or whatever other tasks might divide your focus too much. Just be honest about what you can and can’t handle. In the game of hybrid meetings, it never helps to have too much pride. 

Don’t panic

Technology can be intimidating. At times it can seem like a malevolent force sent to inexplicably ruin all of your best laid plans. It’s easy to get flustered when sound doesn’t turn on right away or there’s come connectivity issues, but don’t panic! A/V is as scared of you as you are of it. Well maybe not, but that doesn’t change the fact that keeping cool is the best course of action. When something doesn’t work it can be easy to immediately jump to thinking the whole meeting is ruined, but the vast majority of issues can be solved in a minute or two and you’ll be right back to running an amazing meeting. Just quickly get your tech specialist or co-host, explain in detail what is wrong (“I can’t hear the person on the other end”, for example), and they can fix it. Nothing is ever really ruined until you give up! 

Communicate

When you’re coordinating a meeting don’t take anything for granted. A hybrid meeting comes with a lot of moving parts, most tricky of which are the human elements. Between you, in-person attendees, virtual attendees, and your venue’s event tech specialist there are a lot of humans that open you up to human error that can disrupt a smooth meeting experience. So, it is extremely important to ASSUME NOTHING and communicate effectively. What is it that you need from your co-host? What are you expecting from your venue? Don’t expect anyone to grasp your vision via osmosis. Lay it out plainly and don’t end the discussion until everyone has communicated clearly back to you that they’re on the same page. This is why having that road map of your meeting is important. 

Experiment

There’s no one right way to host a hybrid meeting just like there are many ways to structure a productive in-person meeting. Creativity is key to keeping things interesting and surprising your meeting participants. But you have to be willing to take some risks that not everything will go perfectly and that’s okay. Without that willingness to try something new, you won’t invent a fantastic new tool or exercise. The key is to set expectations with your meeting attendees at the top of the day. Let them know that you’ve got some surprises built in but that not everything may work out as planned and you need their willingness to jump off the cliff with you. By putting everyone into a playful mindset, you’ll stop any potential disasters and over reactions when something doesn’t quite work exactly as you imagined. The key is to pivot, abandon something that isn’t working and move on to the next section of your agenda. 

As an example, one of our clients was recently challenged to facilitate her hybrid meeting virtually. She wasn’t certain how it would work but planned for all contingencies and then just took the leap. It worked out fantastically. Here’s what she had to say:

We had SUCH a terrific time at the space. 😊 I’m hopeful our people weren’t too much of a pain in the butt (I’m sure they were at times, though).

Really, though, you and your team made this a reality for us and it was something we really didn’t know if we could pull off. THANK YOU!  Lyndon the A/V was phenomenal and I should have never should have worried for more than a second. I had been told countless times how important the audio and visual was and 1. They were absolutely right, and 2. You had it perfectly set up to meet our needs. ❤ 

I wanted to let you both know that we reached our meeting objective early and have decided let our folks have the day off tomorrow as a celebratory reward. We won’t be needing the space at all tomorrow.  

Thank you again for everything you’ve done, all the silly questions you’ve put up with, and the stress of mine you handled beautifully. So appreciative!

-Andrea, Slalom Consulting

If you’re getting ready to put on your first hybrid meeting it’s natural to feel a little daunted. Hopefully, with these tips you’ll end up feeling just a little bit better about it. However, if all else fails just remember that it even if it’s your first hybrid meeting it’s not the venue’s and they’ll be happy to help put your mind at ease.

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