The sudden surge in virtual events in 2020 was unprecedented. Almost overnight, millions of people globally began working from home, only communicating with their colleagues and clients over platforms such as Zoom and Microsoft Teams, while the majority of meetings and conferences were switched to virtual formats.

This has been devastating for the events and travel industries, but it also brought with it an unexpected silver lining for the planet. The Covid-19 pandemic reduced global greenhouse gas emissions by a record 7% last year, according to new estimates by scientists, as lockdowns resulted in reduced transportation and industrial activity.

Ten months later, and with Covid-19 still prevalent around the world, the situation hasn’t changed dramatically. We are still meeting virtually, though many event professionals are optimistic live events will come back this year, with hybrid formats predicted to be popular.

Hybrid events are being touted as a key route to recovery for the events industry post-pandemic. Combined live and virtual events, either in a studio setting where speakers present to both a small live audience and larger virtual audience, or where smaller regional live hub events are connected virtually, are a natural solution to easing corporates back into holding in-person events safely. They also offer the additional benefit of being more sustainable as they require less people travelling to one destination and produce less waste. A report by virtual exhibition platform V-Ex last year claimed a virtual exhibition will create less than 1% of the carbon emissions of a live event.

Although it’s generally accepted that virtual and hybrid events will never replace live, the huge investment in new technologies by both end clients and event agencies, combined with the fact that audiences are now more accustomed to virtual environments, means these new formats are here to stay. So, could embracing hybrid events accelerate the industry’s transition to a more sustainable future?

Why sustainability still matters

As an industry with a historically poor record for sustainability, the past few years has seen sustainability rapidly rise up the list of priorities for event professionals. The mindset has firmly shifted from sustainability being a nice-to-have to a must-have, and it’s crucial that the impact of Covid is not used as an excuse to fall back into old habits. Climate change was widely considered the greatest threat facing human civilisation before Covid and will remain so when the pandemic passes.

“Sustainability is the fundamental issue for our generation now. There is a real energy behind the movement and the events industry has a big part to play in representing that. There are a couple of things driving that, the main one being that is the right thing to do. For some of our corporate clients, sustainability is a big piece of their strategy and values. As an agency, it’s also one of our key pillars,” says Steve Quah, founder at CEO at Cheerful Twentyfirst, which has offices in the UK and the USA.

Dale Parmenter, CEO at DRPG, which has offices in the UK & Ireland, Germany and the USA, says that the pandemic has heightened and accelerated many of the trends we were already seeing. “Clients were starting to take a lot more responsibility for sustainability. We have been creating hybrid events for years now and were just beginning to see more demand for them. At the same time, we were also recognising that in a few years’ time, it would no longer be fashionable to put thousands of people on a plane and fly them to one location.”

This was partly being driven internally by staff, who were looking at their companies’ sustainability policies and beginning to question any practices that have an impact on the planet. Parmenter says that while the will to create more sustainable events was there before, what the last nine months has taught clients is how they can do it. “The switch to virtual and hybrid events fits into the sustainability agenda. But it’s not just about sustainability, it’s also about convenience as well. You don’t have to drag lots of people out of the office at the same time. I think a combination of things have come together at the same time in a way that has never happened before and created an opportunity to drive sustainability forward.” 

Vianei Hermes, head of business development and sustainability at Swedish agency Hermes, agrees, saying that clients have had their eyes opened by the pandemic. “They realised they can work from home and be more productive from home, and how much money and carbon emissions they can save as a result. I strongly believe that physical events will be there in the future, but it will be harder to justify taking a flight,” he adds.

Responsible travel choices

Currently, with travel accounting for anything between 70-90% of the average event’s carbon emissions according to research, cutting down on travel – which the hybrid format enables – is the easiest way to reduce carbon footprint. Cheerful’s Quah says it’s a bit misleading to say that just cutting flights will make an event more sustainable but believes a lot of functional meetings and those done out of habit will remain virtual after the pandemic. For example, booking a venue for two hours to get 200 staff together, or flying across Europe for a one-day meeting with a colleague or client. “The live side will come back. It will come back naturally, and it will be driven by the fundamental need for people to get together and socialise. But the value and purpose for every event will be scrutinised more,” he says.

Ian Cummings, global VP commercial, at CWT M&E adds that we were already seeing a trend towards more local and domestic events, and the pandemic has accelerated that. “There is a cost element to travel – flights and hotel rooms are expensive. If you have 70% less people travelling, then the cost of the event can be much more economical.

“But it’s important to understand that a hybrid event is not as cheap as clients might think it is because you have two elements of planning – the virtual side and all the planning and production that requires, alongside the planning for the live element, so it’s almost double the planning.”

Pros and cons of hybrid

Hybrid may not end up being cheaper to produce than live events – in some cases it could actually cost more – but the benefit of reach that the virtual element adds certainly makes it cost-effective. “If you have 50 people in three regional hubs, but an additional 3,000 joining virtually, the cost of attendee comes down massively. From a return on investment perspective, it makes a lot more sense,” says Cummings.

For all of hybrid’s pros, it also throws up new challenges. “The challenge for us as an industry is to understand what a successful hybrid event looks like. We know how to engage live audiences, and we have learned how to communicate virtually, but how do we make an event work for both audiences? We have two worlds colliding and we need to make sure that the experience will be equally as engaging for both,” says Quah.

Cummings adds that you also need to consider the challenges involved in getting people together at the same time across multiple time zones, as well as the technical challenges.

“As much as you plan and rehearse, there will always be tech issues outside of your control right down to the quality of someone’s home broadband connection,” he explains.

Juliette Cairo, who heads up business development for the UK & Ireland at SBM Monaco, also questions how much more sustainable hybrid events are than pure live events. As well as the live element, which may be smaller, she points out that there is the carbon impact of the virtual part, which she feels is yet to be understood. “I really believe that the common prejudice is that hybrid events have a lower carbon footprint because of the reduced travel. But what about all the computer and server-based activity involved in producing virtual? This is harder to assess, and I don’t think we have enough experience in hybrid events so far,” she says.

Making live more sustainable

Cairo adds that it’s important to remember that live events can be made more sustainable than they were five to ten years ago, and SBM has invested heavily in reducing the carbon impact at all its venues. Whether an event is pure live or a combination of live and virtual, the focus still needs to be on making the live part more sustainable. And not just from an environmental perspective, because sustainability is about so much more, including equality, inclusion and social impact.

inVOYAGE CEO Richard Joslin sees this side to the debate arguing: “Humans by nature have short memories, particularly when we get busy, so it’s critical that the heightening in awareness of climate change and drive to do something about it doesn’t get forgotten in the race for life after Covid.  It’s easy to see why the shift to homeworking for so many sectors holds benefits for the environment and the fact is that a lot of companies are viewing it with a permanence, or at least far beyond the pandemic, is a great thing.  However, this in-turn risks the emergence of disparate workforces lacking the social and cultural glue needed to maintain a corporate ideology, loyalty and ultimately performance motivation.  It is here that incentives and events have the opportunity to take on renewed value, providing companies the opportunity to create more frequent rewarding motivational and social business gatherings, whilst reinforcing the cultural identity of the brand and its people.

“We are social beasts and for the most part we have a conscience, so if events can be made smaller and more environmentally friendly this can be an incredibly powerful thing for companies in communicating internally and externally.  To an extent, it could be said that the luxury hotels sector in particular have seen this coming someway off and put strong corporate social responsibility (CSR) programmes in place to meet the expectations of their clients and stakeholders as well as being viewed favourably in their local communities.  The emergence of electric or hydrogen-based road and air transportation will in-turn make travel far more environmentally friendly.  So, it’s possible that we have a lot to look forward to if we harness the way we approach the environment through events.” he states.

Cummings adds to this saying “I think we can continue to do a lot more in planning our events to make sure they are more sustainable. Whether it’s the real basics of reducing plastics, through to using local produce, understanding food production, minimising waste, using facilities that are ethical and responsible and more intrinsic elements such as CSR initiatives to support the environment and community.”

So, will the hybrid revolution lead to more sustainable events industry in the long term? Quah believes that it will definitely play a key part. Cairo however thinks it’s too early to understand the relationship between hybrid and sustainability. That may be so, but one huge positive to come out of the Covid crisis is the renewed focus on sustainability.