A Working Hybrid Model: To Add Revenue, Just Add Streams
Hybrid Events are the future, and we’re always happy to hear about business models that work. So we were pleased to stumble on this story about ARRS, a medical imaging society, and Keri Sperry, their Senior Director of Education. They’ve been producing digital events since 2011, and have been adding hybrid revenue streams to a successful live association event. They started by livestreaming just some workshops that were held in conjunction with their annual meeting. Livestream attendance grew from 42 to over 300 in 2012 (on top of over 900 in-person attendees). The virtual registration fee to attend workshops is higher than for physical attendance, but on-site attendees also have to pay for annual meeting registration. So they added another stream: in 2013 they livestreamed the five most popular instructional courses from the annual meeting as well. Since that was successful, they offered two of the five livestreamed courses as Web lectures later in the year. So, for a small additional expense, the association added another layer of revenue. Their story illustrates an important strength to the hybrid model: repackaging content and growing revenue streams can sometimes be as easy as adding one more live stream.