Zoom study: Hybrid events due to stay in the future
In a Zoom study, event marketers believe that hybrid events will continue to play an important role in future event planning even if the desire for face-to-face events is strongly back following the Covid crisis.
A new study from Morning Consult found that 91% of event marketers believe hybrid events play an important role in future event planning. The study, commissioned by Zoom, surveyed more than 150 event marketers and planners from various organisations to collect insight into the current and future state of hybrid events.
Networking is one of the greatest benefits of in-person events, but it is still possible with virtual and hybrid experiences. Event professionals who are directly involved with planning and organising events feel that hybrid events facilitate interaction between virtual and in-person attendees very well.
Interaction, the greatest benefit of hybrid events
According to the Zoom and Morning Consult survey, 54% of participants support this idea, and 61% believe the interaction between virtual and in-person attendees is the greatest benefit of hybrid events – higher than any other benefit. As evidenced by the Morning Consult survey, exchanging contact information and having meaningful conversations at a hybrid event are considered the most ideal possible interactions by event marketers.
The demand for virtual and hybrid events is expected to increase over the next year, which may cause some concern for event marketers who are new to hosting hybrid events. The Morning Consult study cites that 46% of event marketers regularly question whether their event will be engaging enough for attendees, and 55% feel that establishing equality between remote and in-person attendees is the most important aspect of successful hybrid events.
When hosting a hybrid event, it may feel easy to use your current videoconferencing or meeting solution. But a truly engaging and equitable hybrid experience requires seamless technology and a proactive approach to distributing content as well as promoting intentional interaction between attendees.
The Morning Consult study found that most event marketers are currently using audio/video communication platforms for hybrid events, but not all are equipped to handle the entire lifecycle of event management. This could factor into why event marketers cited the following as some of their greatest hybrid event concerns:
- Issues with connection for remote attendees
- The difficulty for remote attendees to access an event
- Choosing the right platform for the event
How customers are using Zoom
Meanwhile, Zoom also revealed recently how its platform is used by people. The communications platform aggregated anonymised Zoom usage data from November 1, 2021 to October 31, 2022 to glean insights into how its customers used Zoom over the past year.
Results are bringing some surprises.
Busiest days of the week :
- Tuesday is the busiest day for the number of meetings, conference room usage, and hosting hybrid events.
- Wednesday is the busiest day for making phone calls, sending team chats, using virtual whiteboards, and hosting webinars.
- Thursday is the most popular day for people to use @all in Zoom Team Chat.
- Friday is the slowest workday for meetings, phone calls, chats, webinars, and the use of rooms.
How customers are participating with Zoom :
- Average meeting size was 7 participants
- Average meeting length was 52 minutes
- On average, 46.5% of meetings use screen sharing.
- Tuesday is the busiest day for meetings, followed by Wednesday.
Events :
Zoom recommends to skip late October, because video meetings are full during that time. The busiest day of 2022 for Zoom Events was October 26, followed by October 24, October 25, and October 27. Otherwise, Tuesday was the busiest day of the week for Zoom Events.
Zoom also asked more than 2,800 people in the past year to provide insights into their way of communicating and working on the communication platform.
Top pet peeves mentioned in Zoom survey were :
- When someone talks over other people (34%)
- When the meeting is already over time and someone says they have another question (28%)
- When someone eats in a Zoom meeting while not on mute (24%)
Some other notables annoyances:
- Friday afternoon meetings – especially for Millennials
- All caps typing
