Livestream for the HIB High-Achiever's Day

Hybrid events have become indispensable in the post-pandemic era. They offer numerous advantages: for example, they break down barriers and enable people who cannot be there in person to access the event.

In addition, video recordings can be reused in many ways afterwards. As video on demand, the content is available asynchronously at any time and can be accessed flexibly and individually. From a single piece of long-form content, short excerpts can be quickly and easily cut out for use on social media - including as shorts, reels or stories.

Hybrid events can therefore be particularly valuable in the university context, where knowledge transfer and access to education are especially important.

For the Hector Institute for Empirical Educational Research, we broadcasted the ‘High-Achiever's Day’ live from the large Paul Lechler Hall at Hospitalhof in Stuttgart. The programme included numerous lectures, panel discussions and Q&A sessions on the topic of gifted education.

With a total of four cameras, three of which were manned, our production team was able to make the stream varied and lively, giving viewers the feeling of being there for real.

An important aspect of hybrid events is that online viewers watching on their screens must be engaged and integrated into the event from the outset. The question, ‘What added value can be offered to them while informal networking breaks are taking place at the in-person event?’ should be considered early on in the planning phase of the live event.

One way to create added value is to generate exclusive content. Either in advance or, as we did for this event, directly on site. During the lunch break, we filmed a walk through the ‘market of opportunities’. In it, a presenter guided viewers through the hall and gave the institutions and programmes the opportunity to briefly introduce themselves in ad hoc interviews with the representatives present.

The segment was edited on site immediately afterwards and broadcast a few minutes later in the live stream. The half-hour walk was then incorporated into the final recording in post-production.

The day-long event attracted around 300 visitors on site and up to 100 viewers via live stream.