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Insights on events, technology, and the future of gathering
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Insights on events, technology, and the future of gathering
Quick answer: Choose an onsite event when face-to-face connection matters most, a virtual event when you need reach, flexibility and a lighter environmental footprint, and a hybrid event when you want both. Canapii is designed to bring onsite and virtual audiences together on one platform, so the format can follow your goals.
Onsite: unbeatable face-to-face connection, but demanding to attend
Virtual: bigger audiences, flexible formats and a far smaller footprint
Choosing: match the format to your goals, audience and budget
Few industries changed as fast as events did in 2020. Onsite gatherings that once defined the calendar suddenly went virtual, and organizers discovered that the new format brought real advantages along with the obvious compromises. Here is what each format does best - and why we believe hybrid events are where it all lands.
There is no substitute for hopping on a plane with a colleague, heading to a new destination, meeting partners over a great dinner and staying in a gorgeous hotel. If you travel to only two or three events a year, that is probably your favorite part of the job.
The shine wears off quickly, though, if you are an event professional attending events every week. Constant travel leaves many of us tired, drained and barely sure which destination we have landed in. Onsite events deliver connection like nothing else, but they demand a lot of time, budget and energy from everyone involved.
In 2020 everything changed, and events went virtual almost overnight. At the start the industry panicked: would chance interactions disappear, would attention spans shrink, would the sense of togetherness be lost? Some organizers also realized too late that picking the best event platform
There are certainly downsides to virtual events - but the industry also discovered a long list of positives.
Far bigger audiences: many more people can attend a virtual event, sometimes ten times as many as would travel to an onsite one.
Longer, more flexible formats: an event can run for two weeks rather than two days, with attendees joining for just one hour per day.
Truly global keynotes: a global company can let every employee watch the CEO’s keynote live, rather than restricting it to those in the room.
Content that keeps working: everything is automatically recorded - and on Canapii transcribed too - so sessions can be amplified later on social media and beyond.
Meetings without the mileage: one-to-one meetings still happen over video, and nobody wastes time traveling.
A dramatically smaller footprint: peer-reviewed research later confirmed the scale of the environmental benefit - moving a conference fully online can cut its carbon footprint by around 94%, and a hybrid format with regional hubs by roughly 60–70% (Nature Communications, 2021).
Virtual events have also pushed organizers to learn the skills of the TV studio, with green screens, lighting, autocue and direction all at a premium.
At Canapii we believe the near future belongs to hybrid events, where some attendees engage onsite while others dip in and out virtually. The event venue of the future will have ‘Zoom’ meeting rooms, so three people can meet in person while colleagues elsewhere join seamlessly on screen.
Good events are inspirational: the keynotes spark the ideas that get attendees sketching business plans in the bar that night. Hybrid keeps that in-person spark while extending it to everyone who could not make the trip. It will not surprise you that Canapii is already designed to bring the best of onsite and virtual events together under one roof.
Start with your goals. If deep relationship-building or hands-on experiences are the point, go onsite. If reach, flexibility and sustainability top the list, go virtual. And if you want the connection of a live audience with the scale of an online one, hybrid gives you both - provided your platform can treat the two audiences as one event rather than two.
An onsite event brings everyone together in person, a virtual event runs entirely online, and a hybrid event combines the two so each attendee can choose how they take part.
Yes. Removing travel and venue limits means many more people can join - sometimes ten times as many - and events can run longer, with attendees dipping in for an hour a day.
Significantly. Peer-reviewed research found that moving a conference fully online cuts its carbon footprint by around 94%, while a hybrid format with regional hubs cuts it by roughly 60–70%.
Yes. Canapii was designed to bring the best of onsite and virtual events together on one platform, so in-person and remote attendees share sessions, meetings and networking as a single audience.
Canapii has powered 2,000+ events for 300,000+ attendees across 45+ countries since 2020 - onsite, virtual and hybrid alike. See how one platform can handle whichever format you choose: get a demo.