CONGRESS ENGINEERING: THE ART OF HYBRID EVENTS

Reaching large audiences is crucial for the success of a business or an organisation. A new invention in event organisation is helping to achieve this: hybrid events. But what exactly are they?

Ask the professionals at Congress Engineering. Since its foundation in 2002, the company has always been dedicated to offering complex solutions on the Bulgarian and international market. The company portfolio of services focuses on profes­sional solutions for on line and hybrid events, virtual conferences, live streaming, its own platforms for online events, rental of conference equipment, sale of professional equipment, equipment and installation of conference rooms, professional lin­guistic services, stage construction and 3D visualisa­tion, design, furniture, stands and the latest and most advanced LED video walls on the market.

By combining these separate directions, the com­pany has established partnerships with clients from diverse fields of business. By protecting the common interests of all stakeholders and the indi­vidual approach towards each client and audience, Congress Engineering has found the key to the question about how to organise impeccable events. The clear pricing policy makes the finishing touch, and is the final reason why clients always receive the best quality of service and repeatedly return.

To learn more about hybrid events as seen by Congress Engineering, we talked to three key people in the company: engineer Kristiyan Gedov, owner and CEO, Tanya Georgieva, Marketing and Sales Director and member of the Board of Directors, and Radoslav Karamarinov, Technical Director.

Mr Gedov, are hybrid events the future of your industry?

This direction is the direct answer to the Covid-19 crisis that started in 2020. It is beyond any doubt that hybrid events are here to stay. From now on, the online part will remain crucial in organising all types of events. The crisis forced us as early as 2020 to develop and implement online events in our company portfolio of services. Later, these expanded - hybrid events came into being. Three years later we continue to use the successfully implemented advanced technologies in our business that made hybrid events easy to organise, secure and very com­petitively priced.

2023 is a year full of strong moments and changes that increased significantly the prices of equipment that we use. Despite this, we managed to find the balance that allowed us to continue working at the best value for money prices and quality.

Is it possible to compensate for the lack of direct contact with the presenter and if yes - how?

One can get used to everything. Technologies are rapidly developing and you can already use even holograms of people who are on stage thousands of kilometres away from the audience.

Mrs Georgieva, for what type of clients are best hybrid events?

They are for every client who wants to organise a large scale event with many participants. Hybrid events redefined the need of searching and renting large and expensive spaces. With the modern tech­nologies and online platforms a new opportunity to organise big events arrived. Each client who is con­sidering such an event can rent a relatively smaller room and invite between 100 and 200 people to attend personally, and ask dozens or hundreds of thousands of other participants to join virtually. We are able to organise and realise the whole event. The hybrid event gives people the opportunity to meet again. I can say that now most of the guests are happier and their smiles during socialising are more than when we used to organise only on line events.

Which is the most memorable hybrid event that Congress Engineering has organised?

In its long history, Congress Engineering has had moments when it used to organise over 20 events daily. The most memorable hybrid event was defi­nitely the first one! We want to thank our long-time partners who trusted us to do it. As early as 2020 we started to develop different options for on line events and later we organised a series of such events via dif­ferent platforms.

Mr Karamarinov, what are the main technical chal­lenges in organising an impeccable hybrid event?

To organise an impeccable hybrid event you need to consider many factors - definitely more than you might initially think. There are many tiny technical details that can compromise the whole event if they are neglected and go wrong. Until now, we would pay attention to the quality and professional equipment and the trained and experienced technical staff. Nowadays, we have another factor to consider - the stable, reliable and guaranteed Internet connection. In all cases the Internet connection proved to be a crucial part in the success of all hybrid and online events. At the beginning, while we were making our baby steps and were developing the different options, we were always on edge until the event ended because of our direct dependency on the quality of the Internet connection. After one event fol lowed another, we learned how to work in the most efficient way and became better prepared, thus effectively eliminating all unexpected or possible "surprises."

Congress Engineering has always relied most on its professional technical team. After the Covid-19 crisis ended, in 2022, we restarted the company and are now proud with the most professional technical team of engineers we ever had. Now we work with people who have technology in their DNA They all are highly motivated and enthusiastic by the different chal­lenges and requirements they have to deal with on a daily basis. Our company's future is based on the fact that its employees love what they are doing. This is the same thing that guarantees the quality of our hybrid event.

Sofia, 36 Dragan Tsankov Blvd

phone: +359 2 963 29 55

www.congresseng.com