Community Forum – Have you held a hybrid event to inspire innovation?

Resource Type
Survey (Community Forum)
Publish Date
09/09/2022
Author
Innovation Research Interchange
Topics
Employee Innovation, Ideation, Managing Innovation and R+D
Associated Event
Publication

A: Have you held a hybrid event to inspire innovation?

Our organization is planning an event to inspire every employee to think about ways to innovate in their role. This includes the team members who are working remotely, and planners are thinking of ways to design a meeting which seamlessly incorporates these virtual participants.

The results from this week’s survey are below with respondents labeled by number:

Community Responses

1. Have you held employee innovation brainstorming, hackathon, or other type of innovation event that included in-person and virtual attendees? If yes, please describe the format of your event below.

  • 1. Ideathons, Ideation Campaigns, Hackathons
  • 2. Yes, we used teams and separate conference rooms that were tied together by a phone and cameras as well. Each group worked through the shared brainstorming document, but could phone another room to talk to others about questions on the topics.
  • 3. we have done in–person only and virtual-only. We have tried a hybrid format but found it very difficult to have the same experience for everyone.
  • 4. Yes. My org held a hackweek to solve a problem with finding defects in composite parts using data science. The hackers were predefined (a specific class at a university my company partners with) and they chose their own teams. Each team worked on the problem and developed a presentation about their proposed solution. A group of judges chose the top 3 solutions. The hackweek also included short presentations from composites experts, data scientists, and project management experts.
  • 5. While we have held many in-person as well as virtual only sessions, we haven’t held “hybrid” events; we have done many virtual only that were well done.

2. What, if anything, about your event made virtual attendees feel included in the conversation?

  • 1. Global reach, frequent communications, office hours for coaching/guiding teams (e.g. for pitch)
  • 2. All could see and edit and hear the same ideas.
  • 3. We have found it difficult to engage both in-person and remote people in the same sessions. Either the people in the room feel left out or the people who are online feel left out of the activities.
  • 4. They had to be involved because they were solving a problem and were getting a grade for their project.
  • 5. Not hybrid; but rather virtual only – our sessions were well done so that all participated; virtual brainstorming sessions as well as virtual poster sessions

3. What, if anything, made your virtual attendees feel excluded from the conversation?

  • 1. Possibly language/localization of content & format
  • 2. When the technology did not keep them in the session. When there was only 1 or 2 was easier To be left out if person was not able to be recognized to talk. Hardened to”break into” the conversations in the room.
  • 3. We have found it difficult to engage both in-person and remote people in the same sessions. Either the people in the room feel left out or the people who are online feel left out of the activities.
  • 4. In some of the larger groups there were people who didn’t participate much.  Limiting the group size and requiring everyone in the group to be part of the final presentation would have helped.

4. Are there are any other lessons learned that you would like to share on architecting hybrid innovation events?

  • 2. Keep breakout groups small and active. The virtual groups may been to be a specific group that reports out.
  • 3. Do all in person or all virtual.
  • 4. I would say shorter is better with virtual events. People inevitably start multi-tasking or disengaging when a virtual event is too long.
  • 5. one tool we have found helpful for aynchronous communications (like where an attendee can’t participate directly, but could provide feedback, or participate in the conversation, using tools like mural).

Have a response to add?  Email us!