When it comes to the corporate events landscape, which one of these four event personality types are you?

#1. Expected to Hate Online Events, Still Do, and Happy to SaySo.

#2. Amazed by Online Events and Super Excited About Their Future.

#3. Fine with Online, In-Person and Hybrid Events.

#4. Feel Judged About Preferring to Stay Online Only.

While there’s a wide range of event personality types (more than just those listed above) and many event production options, these four groups helped me determine that your best bet is to plan hybrid events and create content with group #3 in mind.

That’s because I believe your event success hinges upon accommodating emotional presence and practical efficiencies before you even start to plan exceptional content.

How your attendees feel about participating in advance of and during your event, and whether they’re productive during and after the event, will not be the same for every event personality type. Consider the following generalizations about how your event attendees may respond emotionally:

At an Online Event

#1: Annoyed and closed minded

#2: Enthusiastic and engaged

#3: Neutral, maybe passive

#4: Relieved but restrained

At an In-Person Event

#1: Energized and joyous

#2: Discontented and bored

#3: Neutral, maybe passive

#4: Unhappy and reluctant

At a Hybrid Event

#1: Happy yet still wanting more

#2: Happy yet still wanting more

#3: Neutral, maybe passive

#4: Happy yet still subdued

Assuming you’re always aspiring to create exceptional content, in which scenario are you most likely to get feedback suggesting your event has been a success (in terms of attendance, engagement, productivity and survey responses)?

No matter how exceptional your content is, it’s an uphill battle to get people to attend and participate if they are feeling annoyed, closed minded, discontented, bored, reluctant, and subdued.

Obviously then, in a Hybrid Event scenario you’ve got the best path of least resistance overall in terms of getting people to attend and engaged. #1s and #2s are only 100% happy in one scenario each and experience extreme negativity in another. #4s experience mild negativity to all three scenarios. And #3s are, at worst, passive in all scenarios, which is at least a leap-off point in terms of their emotional presence.

So, here’s why it’s not counterintuitive to plan content for your hybrid event with #3s in mind, even if they can be described as passive:

If you plan hybrid event content with #2s in mind, because they are hyped about online events, you may overdo it with the fancy bells and whistles that online event platforms offer. This will make at least the #1s even more annoyed and closed minded.

If you plan hybrid event content with #1s in mind, because they hate anything that whiffs of an online event, you may under deliver on the digital event options that can add a lot of value for your attendees and sponsors, which could make #2s and other stakeholders even more discontented and bored.

If you plan hybrid event content with #4s in mind, because they are anxious about being judged and prefer to be a fly on the wall, you could spend too much effort trying to make them feel less judged when they may not increase their engagement no matter what you do.

But, if you plan hybrid event content with #3s in mind, you’ll focus on programming and event production elements that are designed to inspire people who are neutral or passive to become engaged, which may end up working on your other event personality types without alienating anyone.

Hybrid events don’t necessarily have to have massive budgets for two large audiences (in-person and online). Any such events can feature either a nominal in-person or digital component and still be considered hybrid.

Imagining what will make someone who is fairly easy going change emotions from neutral or passive to enthusiastic and engaged is not an overwhelming and cost-prohibitive challenge. Creating an experience and content with them in mind has the best chance of increasing practical efficiencies for all attendees.