The Future Normal: Hybrid Events

No, not that type of hybrid. It's time to talk about workcations.

This time last week, I was lying on a beach in Ibiza. Look past the humblebrag (!), because there’s another reason I wanted to share this with you: my experience in Ibiza captures a powerful dimension of this brave new ‘hybrid’ world that too often gets lost in the conversation about online and offline, the hybrid between professional and personal. 

I wasn’t solely in Ibiza to lie on the beach, but to speak at Square, a real estate conference. Even before the pandemic, José Maria Pons (the event organizer) aimed to create a ‘disruptive and uncommon property gathering’. Part of this, he explained to me when he invited me (four postponements ago!), was encouraging guests to bring their partners and to stay for a few days extra. An intimate gathering of real estate professionals? In Ibiza? In early October? Combined with a short family holiday? Coming from rainy and autumnal London, this got my attention ;)

Here are four quick reasons why you should consider embracing this new hybrid – between personal and professional – when it comes to your next in-person event, whether you’re an organizer or a guest. 

Hybrid creates deeper connections. Events are ultimately about relationships: creating new connections, and strengthening existing ones. Personally, I don’t buy into the notion that you can’t build relationships online, but I do absolutely believe that at some point, it’s imperative to bring your digital connections offline - to break bread with them, literally and metaphorically. The best events combine curated serendipity with deep human connection. Last week, my wife joined us for dinner, and we bonded with fellow guests on a deeper and more personal level than purely professional. And then the next morning, we witnessed my 10 month old daughter, playfully greeting one of the other speakers at breakfast. What quicker way to get to know someone than see them playing peekaboo?! The ‘whole self at work’ genie is well and truly out of the bottle after 18 months of Zoom calls from kitchen tables. Let’s embrace it in the real world now too. 

Hybrid expands the market. Repositioning events to encourage these longer, blended personal and professional trips will be disruptive to many traditional organizers, who will only see the costs - not just financial but in terms of ‘distracted’ attendees. But I’d argue that, like all powerful disruptions, smart organizers will think about how this can expand the market, just as the online element in hybrid events does, too. Business travel is inconvenient, and most people have a limit on how much time they want to spend away from their families. The best (and most global) speaker I know, Frederik Haren, told me that one reason he is so prolific is because he embraces a travel schedule that few others would or could. He has a fairly unique set up where he is on the road for 8-9 months a year, traveling from his base in Singapore, but he then takes 3-4 months off over the summer to be with his family 24/7 on his Swedish island. Now that’s an extreme example, that probably isn’t practical for most people, but hybrid events will make it possible for new people and new demographics to travel for business. 

Hybrid helps alleviate eco-guilt. Like all trends, this isn’t totally new - my wife has joined me on previous speaking engagements (most notably in Capri and Tokyo...note to other speakers, weave in a few less glamorous gigs or your partner will get a skewed perspective of your other trips!). But two key things have changed from a decade ago: Covid-19 has made travel much less convenient than it was; and the status symbol of jumping on a plane for 1-2 day trips has eroded - indeed it’s now almost shameful to fly for such a short period. As a result, many people are trying to reduce their air miles by adopting a ‘fly less, for longer’ mindset, similar to ‘eat less, but better’ flexitarian diets. Hybrid events allow people to still get their international travel fix, just with reduced guilt. 

Hybrid is the Future of Work. Given all of the above, it’s clear that this will be a huge growth area, and forward-thinking event organizers will embrace this trend. And it won’t just be personal vacations that merge with professional events. Hybrid offsites, where a company brings their team together for a week or more of in-person collaboration, could involve families. Workcations will also be part of this trend, where employers allow or even encourage their employees to combine their vacations with a period of working from anywhere (WFA).

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This newsletter is an attempt to explore what the world might look like as we leave the pandemic behind.  

What do you think? Will workcations and hybrid events remain niche, or become a widespread part of The Future Normal in the same way that WFH (at least some of the time) has done so for virtually all white collar workers? What does the dream hybrid event look like? I’d love to hear your thoughts!

Thanks for reading,

Henry