Barnard College Barnard College

Virtual and Hybrid events breakdown

 

Hybrid Events

A hybrid event is an event that takes place both in-person and virtually. There are many kinds of hybrid events - for instance, a presentation with in-person and online speakers, an in-person panel with a virtual audience Q&A,  a simulcast screening, and more.   Nearly all forms of hybrid events, however, need a degree of preparation and support from the AV Services team.

Getting Support for Hybrid Events

As stated in the College Campus Events & Approval Policy, requests for hybrid event services must be submitted a minimum of fourteen business days in advance. (Hybrid support falls under the category of "Events with Resources" in that policy - adequate lead time for these requests allows for thoughtful consideration of logistical and technical requirements, minimizing the risk of unforeseen challenges during events.)   You can request an event via Events Management.

If your event was already scheduled and approved as an "Event Without Resources", and you are requesting to change it to add hybrid support less than one week (five business days) before the event date, your request may be denied due to inadequate time for proper staffing and preparation.

We encourage events wishing to use hybrid components to be held in spaces already equipped with hybrid technology.  Holding a hybrid event in campus spaces that do not have hybrid technology requires a much higher level of staffing and will require that you reserve the space for more time, to allow for setup & takedown of required technology.

When you request support for your hybrid event, you will meet with an AV Services team member for intake.  Intake will include your intentions for the experience of the four possible populations for a hybrid event: in-person panelists, in-person audience, remote panelists, and remote audience.  (The most important factor to plan for a successful event is that all four of these populations can interact with one another seamlessly.)   We'll also discuss the different areas of hybrid event management: setting up the online component, setting up the in-person component, and running the event itself.

Please note that the AV Services team provides the technology and assistance with its use, but does not perform moderation or facilitation. An individual involved in the event itself must be in attendance, coordinating with the AV Services technician(s) supporting the event, to manage tasks such as letting guests into the virtual meeting, monitoring the chat function, muting participants, etc.

Definitions and Best Practices

Hybrid

Videography (asynchronous)

For certain events, you may want a recording to view after the fact. In our classrooms, which are fully equipped with cameras and microphones, the best option is to record over Zoom. Use the classroom AV system to film yourself over Zoom - even if no one else is in the call besides you - and hit record. You can choose to record to the cloud or to your local computer. Recording to the cloud is almost always better as you can access it from anywhere, but keep in mind that Zoom will delete the recording in 7 days, so be sure to back it up somewhere. For rooms that do not have a built-in camera, you will have to request a videographer from the Media Center.

1-way hybrid

A 1-way hybrid event is one that features both an in-room audience and a remote audience, but where the remote audience has no ability to participate in the live event. This will be very familiar to many faculty and students, as it has been the norm for many classes in the last couple of years. Most Barnard classrooms are equipped with an AV system capable of delivering this sort of 1-way hybrid event: cameras and microphones optimized for use with Zoom meetings. However, many of our event spaces do not feature such equipment, and you will have to request a videographer from the Media Center. Note: even though the remote audience isn’t seen nor heard in a 1-way hybrid event, you can still use chat and Q&A features to interact with them.

2-way hybrid

A 2-way hybrid event is one that features two audiences, in-room and remote, that can both interact with one another. 2-way hybrid is significantly more complex and difficult to pull off than 1-way, as it is very easy for awkwardness, terrible audio feedback, and other such disturbances to crop up. In many of our classroom spaces, our integrated AV systems make hybrid - both 1-way and 2-way - smooth and easy. Simply start a Zoom meeting on the classroom computer, use the microphones and cameras to record yourself, and invite whoever you wish to participate remotely. In an event space, this becomes significantly more complicated. Typically, a 2-way hybrid event in a space like Barnard Hall’s James Room or the Diana Center Event Oval will feature not only a screen behind the live presenters for the live audience to see remote participants, but a screen behind the live audience for the live presenters to also see their remote colleagues. Managing audio in such a situation can be very tricky: we typically are mixing both audio sources through the same system, which requires constant moderation to avoid disruptive and unpleasant feedback. Additionally, with all hybrid events regardless of format, managing and troubleshooting remote participants is very difficult. AV services is only able to provide limited guidance for remote participants having technical difficulties, and as such technical glitches can create significant awkwardness. For these reasons, among others, we strongly encourage you to reconsider planning a 2-way hybrid event. Some alternatives might be:

  • Have remote participants pre-record their presentations and play back the video during your event.
  • Use chat and Q&A to interact with the remote audience.
  • Make all or a portion of your event exclusively virtual. If all participants and audience members are joining virtually, then they are all in the same space: cyberspace!

Virtual events

AV Services does not provide in-person support for virtual events such as videoconference meetings or webinars, but we do have a number of relevant tutorials and would be happy to provide 1-on-1 training given enough time for scheduling.  Webinars in particular are an excellent choice for virtual (or even hybrid) events, especially high-profile events or ones with massive audiences. Not only do webinars allow for up to a thousand audience members, but they also make it very easy to control how much (or little) remote audiences can participate. 

To host your own webinar, please request a one-time webinar license from CUIT.