Looking ahead to next year, in a Business News Daily year-ender, Sharat Sharan, President and CEO of ON24, doubles down on Shiao’s expired prediction: “In today’s cost-conscious business environment, demand for hybrid events—a physical event with a virtual extension before, during or after the physical event takes place—will continue to grow.” That’s a safe bet.

Finally, this webinar from Unisfair actually includes discussion with event organizers who have married virtual components to live events. These events are grasping toward a hybrid event model. I wouldn’t call them strictly hybrid, but they’re getting closer. The presentation by PJ Boatwright, VP of Live Media with Fortune magazine illustrates an opportunity to produce a ultra-high level “invitation-only” event and monetize it with a come-one-come-all simulcast and sponsorship component. One key point worth noting in the presentation by Fiona Bruder, SVP Client Services for George P. Johnson: Three-quarters of brand marketers expect trade shows to integrate virtual components. If this is true, then demand for these services is much higher than the supply. I would venture to guess that fewer than 10% of major trade shows integrate a virtual anything.

Why are the virtual event platform providers jumping on the hybrid bandwagon? Because of a growing opportunity and a lurking threat. The opportunity is obvious: Hybrid is in the air—it comes up whenever I talk to professional event organizers. The lurking threat for platform providers is commoditization of their services. A performance-based virtual platform model is already nipping at their heels. How hard would it be for Google or some over-caffeinated dorm-dweller to churn out an open-source virtual event site?