The hybrid approach requires a new playbook and adds considerable costs to the Annual Meeting program. AOM 2020 and 2021 introduced us to costs for event platforms, digital content collection and production, live technical session labor, and digital delivery and access. Hybrid sessions will incur a new cost structure to support live-streaming of meeting rooms which will require dedicated audio-visual setup, video cameras, and digital production staff to produce each session in new “hybrid-ready rooms” pre-set at each hotel/facility. On-site events remain susceptible to location-based costs including catering, audio-visual and room setup, internet use, temporary help, security, transportation, kiosks, laptops, and space rental. Additional variable costs include union labor, innovations to attendees, and new COVID management (vaccination/proof of negative testing) and PPE for attendees. What we have learned is that to run a quality hybrid conference costs twice as much as running a purely physical or purely online event. In effect, it is the equivalent of holding two conferences simultaneously. While increasing the conference registration fee was an extremely difficult decision to make, had we not made such a decision, other difficult decisions would have had to have been made.
Articles in this section
- Do all presenters and session participants have to register for the Annual Meeting?
- What is the registration fee for the AOM 2022 Annual Meeting?
- Why is the conference fee higher than past physical Annual Meetings or the previous two virtual Annual Meetings?
- Is the conference fee the same for both in-person and virtual attendees?
- I don’t have the funds for the registration fees, what should I do?
- What does the registration fee include?
- What if I switch my participation from virtual to in-person or vice versa?
- Can I still register/bring a guest to the conference?
- What’s included in the costs to run a hybrid conference?
- How was the fee determined?
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