Live events are coming back! Here in Las Vegas the news can’t stop talking about World of Concrete [WOC]. Scheduled for June 8-10 at the Las Vegas Convention Center, WOC will be Vegas’ first big trade show since March of 2020. The tradeshow world will be watching.

Notably, there is no mention of an event hybrid option. Maybe concrete is something you must sink your hands into. While many shows will adapt organizer Informa’s WOC success, will they also disregard their 2020/21 virtual event success?

Here are three reasons why they shouldn’t:

1. You’ll lose your audience

Event participants have become accustomed to attending events virtually. While they might have attended your last in-person event, they may not be inclined to do so in the future due to concerns for safety, schedule conflicts or budget constraints. You do not want to lose this audience, but you very well could – because if you don’t have a virtual/hybrid option, your competitor will seize the opportunity and steal them from you.

2. You’ll stunt your growth

By hosting a hybrid option of your event, you gain the opportunity to reach across the globe and introduce your event to those that may have never considered attending your event or might not even be aware of your organization. To reap the rewards, you must have a very targeted marketing strategy and message explicitly directed to these participant prospects.

3. You’ll miss out on converting hybrid attendees to in-person attendees

Hybrid offers the ideal opportunity to showcase your in-person event and give the online attendees a real sense of what they are missing by not attending face-to-face. The fear of in-person cannibalization has long been debunked – if you do it right and give them a real taste of the in-person experience, next year, those hybrid participants will be in the front row of your in-person event.

Your event team is exceptionally skilled at producing in-person events and producing these events can be all-consuming for both the content and event teams – adding a hybrid component is layering on a second event, which requires a second production team to lead. Connect with DAHLIA+Agency to figure out the best approach for creating your hybrid extension.