In this article I'm sharing the hardware and software we used to run a hybrid conference with 500 people registered. I also share how the original plan I had went to shit and how my plan B saved my ass.

A bit of context

On June first 2024 with the Swiss Service Design Network we ran a hybrid conference called The Swiss Service Day with 35 people registered for the on-site experience and +470 people registered for the remote experience.

The event room during the tests the evening before the event

In terms of people "on stage" we had 1 host and 3 guest speakers.
One of the guest speakers joined us on-site and two of the guest speakers joined remotely.

The mindset

This was a challenging event because:

• It was the first time I was doing an hybrid event

• It was a period of my life where I had too much on my plate and too little sleep

• The tools I wanted to use didn't work out well and I had to come up with a minimalist plan B.

• I didn't test enough the technical setup with the newest hardware I bought

But in the middle of all of these elements saved the day:

• Small and DYI: I decided that it would be OK that the event feels DYI and I decided that it would even be interesting for people on-site to see the backstage of how our usual remote events are produced. This allowed me to not have to hide the technical stuff, which meant much less work.

• Focus on relationship: I decided that was most important was the relationship and the content than the form. This relaxed me a bunch.

• Remote first: I decided that the hybrid part of the event would be "remote first" so that helped me to set my priorities when I had to choose between two options.

What are the tools we used

Here are all the tools (hardware and software) that I've used before, during and after the event to make this hybrid conference happen. I'm listing here the tools that worked and that I used, not the ones that I wanted to use but didn't work out or that we used and sucked.

Hardware

A closer look at the hardware

• A laptop with a good enough webcam: Macbook Pro M3

• An additional webcam: Elgato Facecam

• Two lights: Elgato Key Light Air

• Two microphones: A generic one and the Elgato Wave:3

• A generic beamer

• A generic portable speaker connected with a mini jack

Software used during the event

• Restream: A live streaming app

• Youtube: The place where we streamed the conference and hosted the conversations via the live chat feature

• Elgato Wave Link: an app that mixes both mic as one for the streaming software:

Software used before the event

• Canva: a design app that made it possible to design all the graphics, social media posts, images, presentations and even video trailers

• lu.ma: a free ticket registration and newsletter tool

• Linkedin Events: the event feature of the professional social network that enabled us to invite more people to the event

Software used after the event

• Descript: a video editing tool that made it possible to quickly cut the conference into several videos and trailers

• Youtube: the platform where we published the videos

Making the backstage visible to on-site participants

To not have a delay between what happened remotely and on-site for the people in the room, we shared the screen and sound from Restream that the host used to the participants. Definitely not perfect, but at least there was no dealy and the participants could see how the livestreaming was handled during the event.

What are the tools that didn't work out

In preparation for this event I bought three Obsbot Tail Air cameras that theoretically you can use very simply to have a live stream with multiple angles. What's theoretically great about those cameras is that they can move angles, so you don't have just three angles, but many more.

That's the theory.

In practice, I never was able to get the cameras working properly. And the day before the event, with the help of my mate Loris, we had to find a plan B. The minimalist plan B is what I've listed above. It was much simpler, less rich in terms of visuals. But it worked!

What worked well

For a first hybrid conference I have to say things went pretty well. Here a few things that I particularly liked:

• Do the setup the day before: with my mate Loris we installed the room and the technical setup the evening before the event. This allowed us to try everything and see what didn't work, and install a plan B.

• Have a plan B: I took enough material so that I had a Plan B in terms of cameras (I brought both my Obsbot Tail Air cameras and my simple Webcam). In the end I used the plan B and was super happy that I had it.

• Keep the on-site small: what saved us was that we didn't have a room of 200 people on-site. This meant we didn't need to put the sound of the mic from the host on speakers on-site.

• Keep it small: by keeping it as small as possible with simple tools we were able to manage this relatively easily.

• Chat interactions: people who joined remotely really used the chat to interact and ask questions.

• Questions assistant: my mate Loris assisted me during the event by bookmarking all the questions from the Youtube chat, so that I didn't have to look at the full chat but could just concentrate on the questions.

• Video teasers: for the first time I've created tiny jingles and video teasers using canva. This allowed me to have tiny breaks during the conference while the video where playing. Plus it also added a layer of audio and animation that felt more polished.

What didn't work or sucked

Even if it worked well, I wouldn't re-do it in the same exact way. Here's what I wouldn't do anymore:

• Remote participation rooms: The Miro boards where people could interact more deeply didn't really work out. There was a low interaction there.

• Hybrid sucks for the on-site participants: For the people on-site this wasn't the best experience as they basically watched the host speaking to a camera and saw on the screen how that guy made the live-streaming work well for the people online. That's why for the next series of event we're splitting the experience to have only fully remote or fully on site experiences.

• Hybrid is tricker to organize: Technically it was more stressful to do an hybrid event that doing a fully remote one.

• Internet connexion: Even if I tested the internet connexion a few times, I don't know why, but in the livestreaming my camera feed was pixellated.

• Presentations as PDF backup: for one guest speaker I didn't have the slide deck in advance and when the screen sharing didn't work we had to find a plan B live. Next time I'll ask all the presenters to send me their presentation PDF in advance.