Powering the nation over the last 70 years, Tenaga Nasional Bhd (TNB) takes pride in being the leading Malaysian corporation with a growing international footprint.
It has been illuminating lives and livelihoods by turning dreams into reality even before Malaya gained its independence in 1957. This year, TNB took another bold step by hosting TNB Corporate Identity Launch in the hybrid format.
TNB Corporate Identity Launch is an event which aims to embark on a journey to rediscover a Purpose, Aspiration and Core Values for TNB. Organised by TNB in collaboration with Evenesis and held at Balai Islam An-Nur, TNB HQ in Bangsar on July 29th, this hybrid event saw 100 physical attendees on-site, together with 1720 registered attendees who tuned into the Webinar online.
Challenges We Encountered in Organising This Hybrid Event
Since the outbreak of coronavirus, the current economic downturn has made it more challenging for businesses to earn public attention. With cancelled in-person gatherings, events and parties, most marketing leaders are opting for hybrid events to increase participation in traditional events, inspiring more engagement with audiences via virtual platforms alongside.
Putting plans into action for the first time in forever, there must be something you are unfamiliar with hybrid events that might be overlooked. Taking our collaboration with TNB as a case study, we have listed here for you what all event organisers should pay careful attention to organising a successful hybrid event, especially amid this pandemic season.
Before the event,
- To pay heed to the attendance of online viewers. One of the main concerns is the number of attendees who actually tune in on the day of the event rather than the number of RSVP-ed attendees.
During check-ins,
- To track the registration for both physical event attendees and online attendees.
- To adhere to the Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) in order to limit contact during temperature screening and ensure a smooth check-in process (for physical attendees).
During live streams,
- To ensure smooth streaming throughout the event.
- To be inclusive so that the online audience doesn’t feel left out during the event.
- To make sure the online attendees have a great experience viewing the event online.
- To secure the seamlessness of the event from start to finish and ensure the virtual attendees’ experience as if they are attending the physical event.
After events,
- To ensure virtual attendees who didn’t make it to the live streaming are able to view the offline recording session.
Going Hybrid With Evenesis Today
As we move forward to running hybrid events, there are a few vital aspects that all event organisers must not miss out. Let’s delve into what Evenesis has highlighted in this TNB hybrid event for your reference.
Before the event:
1. RSVP email catering to two different groups of attendees
Hybrid events take in 2 groups of audience, i.e. offline and online attendees, at the same time. Hence, conveying the right information to the right audience is crucial to avoid any confusion later on the event day.
So, we came up with 2 different RSVP Email Templates for each type of audience. Invitation team can then draft and send a confirmation email of different content to these two groups of participants.
“This system is very competitive and practical in this cyber era. This system is competent in the effort to get the invitation only with only 1 click. There are some things that can be improved for enhancement in the future. Overall, I was satisfied with Evenesis system”
Shameer Ahmad Bin Mohd Yusoof, TNB Corp Comm
2. Efficient database and report module
With the help of Evenesis database and report module, TNB programme team was able to follow up with the number of RSVPed participants for the event from time to time.
Based on the invitation report, they could monitor the number of invitations responded, the number of emails opened as well as the number of emails bounced. With this data in hand, their team can plan on their following action to either reblast the invitation, adding or updating the attendee list or all of the aforementioned.
What we did, in the end, was that we helped them to resend the email invitation to those who did not respond to the previous invitation. We have also helped them to update the invitation list for the event. With the Invitation module in Evenesis, resending email invitations based on the invitees status only takes a couple of minutes.
3. Email reminder to be sent a day before the red-letter day
To keep your event in the mind of your prospective attendees, we can pre-schedule the email reminder to be sent out 1 day before the event with the Promotion Module in Evenesis. At the end of the day, we manage to get 90% of the confirmed attendees to watch the event online.
Besides, joining events during this pandemic season especially can be quite a concern to offline participants. Therefore, an email reminder is encouraged to be sent out to inform the attendees of the flow of the registration during the event, as well as to remind them to get their e-ticket (QR Code) ready.
Well, we can’t say it enough but including a tinge of friendliness into the reminder email for it to be cordially received by the attendees is a smart move.
4. 2-day rehearsal to fix all hiccups
To walk the talk, we had 2 days of rehearsal to walk through the event flow with the organiser and our production crew. In addition to ensuring the physical event running smoothly, we also tested out the virtual platform at the same time to prevent unnecessary hiccups during the event day.
Moreover, we trained the moderator to use our webinar platform and encouraged the emcee to speak to both physical and virtual audience so that everyone who attended, be it on-site or off-site, didn’t ever feel left behind.
During the event:
1. High-speed wifi internet connection
Bear in mind that only stable live streaming will help in fostering a close-knit community between the virtual and physical attendees. Hence, a venue that can support strong internet upload speed, in addition to offering enough room for physical attendees, is utmost important.
For this reason, we liaise closely with the Tenaga Nasional Berhad network team and they gave full support in providing a strong internet connection according to our internet speed requirement. They managed to provide us with a wired connection with an upload speed of 100Mbps.
While on the other hand, we managed to inform all the online attendees to join the event using their personal network with a Sticky Message function available in our webinar platform. Though this hybrid event is an internal event, TNB was expecting thousands of online attendees from all over Malaysia. For that reason, we predicted that most viewers would access the online stream using TNB Network which could have consequently led to traffic congestion and slowness.
2. Managing virtual chat room to promote interaction
Questions left unanswered and problems left unsolved may upset the online viewers, leading them to drop out from the live stream halfway. Thus, we advised the TNB Event Team to assign a person in charge of managing the virtual chat room as the moderator during the live stream.
This is extremely helpful if any audience faces technical issues or has questions to be raised during the Q & A session with the panelist. By using the Sticky Message function, the moderator can put a pinned message in the chatroom to deliver a message to all online attendees without worrying anyone will miss it.
3. Adhering to the SOP and practising social distancing
To reduce the risk of Covid-19, our team has to minimise the contact with the attendees during check-in on the day of the event.
Prior to entering the event hall, we used Facial Recognition Temperature Scanner to perform health screening. Only attendees that follow the SOP by wearing a mask and having a temperature lower than 37.5℃ were allowed to proceed to the registration counter.
For a faster check-in process, the team used Evenesis Mobile App to avoid long queues. The registration process went off quick and smooth on the day itself and we managed to reduce contact during the process.
After the event:
1. Live stream recording link to be sent to the attendees
Over is over? NO! Just because your event is finished, doesn’t mean there’s nothing left for you to do. This is indeed the perfect timing to follow up with everyone involved to thank them and with those who have missed the event to send them a recording of the event.
Finding it tedious? Fret not as we share the sample post-event email template to the client so they can send out the recording and attachment link if needed. This was complimented as a super-friendly feature to whoever has registered the webinar link but unable to attend. They can still view the replay of the event after the event is finished.
By activating the recording function in our webinar platform, it will automatically record your live broadcast and save it in a video file. But, it’s not just a simple recording. Featuring our “Replica Replay” function, it mimics whatever that happened in the Live Room, second-by-second.
Let The Statistics Speak For Themselves
Category | No. of Actual Attendees | No. of RSVP-ed Attendees | Percentage | Response Rate from the Email Invitation | Webinar Session Length |
| Online | 1720 | 1911 | 90% RSVP-ed Attendees | 32% | 02:49:40 |
| Offline | 100 | 100 | 100% RSVP-ed Attendees |
To view the highlights of our first hybrid event with TNB, click on this Youtube link and don’t forget to subscribe to EvenesisTube for the latest updates.
Planning a new event? Hybrid event perhaps? Evenesis is an event management system that lets anyone set up a beautiful event page in a matter of minutes. With Evenesis, you can now turn your thoughts into action. Interested? Get started here or learn more about our Virtual Event & Hybrid Event features.
