Hybrid events combine in-person and virtual experiences. Your audience, regardless of their location, gets the choice to participate in the way that's most comfortable and accessible to them. 

In this guide, learn how to create a single registration page for your hybrid event.

On this page:

What to know about hybrid events

Before getting started, it's important to consider that hybrid events require more staffing and than a typical in-person or virtual event might. This includes considering:

• AV/production support
• Streaming support
• On-site staff
• Virtual moderators

Thankfully, Splash makes it easy to get your registration page, event reminders, and virtual venue up and running.

Creating a registration page

Splash's Hybrid Branded theme includes built-in best practices from this article — including creating an event page catered to both in-person and virtual attendees, multi-track email sequences, a branded Virtual Event Page, and health and safety registration form questions.

To create an event using this branded theme, click here.

Customizing the registration form

Use Splash's registration form to collect in-person or virtual registrations.

To get started creating the form:

1. Click into your event's Registration Form touchpoint. 
2. Click Add Question to add the "Are you attending?" question.
3. Using the same steps, create a new radio question: "Will you be attending virtually or in-person?”
4. Use the radio options to enter “Virtual” and “In-person.”
5. Inside each radio option, set a response limit according to how many virtual and in-person guests you can accommodate. 
6. If you plan to check vaccine or symptom status in-person, Splash recommends creating a custom checkbox question type like, "As an attendee, I understand I will need to confirm my COVID-19 vaccine status to enter the event” or “As an attendee, I understand I will need to provide my recent health symptom information to enter the event."
7. To only display these questions for guests who respond “In-person,” click the advanced logic icon within each question.
8. Select Add Condition then select the “Will you be attending?” question, the equals logic, then the “In-person” response.
9. Remember to apply this logic to each screening question.

Customizing the confirmation message

Click on the Confirmations touchpoint.

Here is where you can create generic confirmation messaging, or include all of the information relevant to in-person and virtual guests. This includes:

• The Virtual Event URL, or the unique URL that allows an attendee to check in and access the virtual content, for online guests. Learn how to include the Virtual Event URL in your on-page and email confirmation.
• COVID-19 event safety protocol for in-person guests

If you're using Splash's Hybrid Branded Theme, follow the steps below to auto-insert information depending on whether a guest is attending in-person or virtually.

To get started:

1. Open the Registration Form touchpoint.
2. Locate the In-person message, Virtual message, and Undecided message hidden questions.
3. Click into each to edit the Default Value.

The information entered in the Default Value input will be used in the confirmation email using the steps below:

1. Open the Confirmations touchpoint.
2. In the Email confirmation, select Design.
3. Click View Personalization Tags from the Layout tab on the right.
4. Locate the In-person message, Virtual message, and Undecided messages.
5. Copy and paste each personalization tag, for example [custom_field_22][custom_field_23][custom_field_21], into the email's body.

Guests will receive custom messaging based on how they plan to attend the event. Submit a test registration to see it in action.

Scheduling reminder emails

Splash recommends sending a time sequenced of reminder emails in advance of the event:

• One week before
• Three days before
• One hour before
• At the event start time

To segment your in-person and virtual attendees into lists for targeted sends, follow the steps below.

• 1. Click on the Guests tab.
  2. Click Filters. 
  3. Select By Custom Questions.
  4. Choose the "Will you be attending virtually or in-person?” question.
  5. Select the "In-person" option and click Save 
  6. Click Apply Filters.
  7. Bulk select your guests and click Add to List.
  8. Name your list or add guests to a pre-made list.
  9. Repeat steps 1-7 to create a list of guests attending virtually.

Create a reminder email for each list and be sure to include the event safety guidelines for those attending in-person and the Virtual Check-In email element for those attending via the Virtual Event Page.

Pro Tip: Give give guests the option to easily change their registration from in-person to online or vice versa. Read about how to enable the modify RSVP feature on your event page.

Setting up the virtual experience

Splash's Virtual Event Page allows you to host and gate embedded, or native live stream, content inside Splash while Splash's native integrations allow you to automate the registration process for video providers.

Helpful resources:

• Splash Studio
• Virtual Event Page
• Virtual Integrations
• Splash and Zoom: Which option is best for my event?

Managing on-site and virtual check-in

To ensure the safest check-in experience for guests on-site, consider taking advantage of Kiosk Mode on the Splash Host app for iOS and Android.

With Kiosk Mode, you can set up devices and allow guests to check themselves in (or register if they haven't already). This helps reduce the amount of close contact with your event staff. 

As for your virtual guests attending via the Virtual Event Page, they can start checking themselves in 30 minutes before your event's start time using their Virtual Event URL. They'll be met with a personalized greeting and a branded space to view your event. 

Warning: A guest can only use their Virtual Event URL on one browser and on one device at a time. To ensure your guest's don't get locked out, make sure they don't share their URL and don't have their link open on multiple browsers or multiple devices at once.

Sending on-demand content post-event

All guests, including those with a Checked Out status or those who no showed (Attending status), can benefit from your post-event content. 

Use our Virtual Event Page as a secure home for your recorded video content.

Simply include the [virtual_event_url] tag in a follow up email to any or all guests on your Guest List. Guests will be able to use their access link to check in and view the recording.