Rehearsals, contingency planning prove key in running hybrid events

IN the lead-up to Singapore International Energy Week (SIEW) - Singapore's first large-scale hybrid event since the Covid-19 pandemic started - event organiser TRICOM Events ran multiple rehearsals and prepared contingency plans and holding statements for every scenario they could think of.

With the hybrid format, the organiser needed to ensure the health and safety of 250 on-site attendees while engaging a virtual audience and remote speakers. This meant juggling safe management measures and pre-event antigen rapid testing (ART) for on-site attendees, and anticipating challenges such as power failures, software hiccups and speakers getting disconnected midway through a session.

"It's literally running two different parallel events," TRICOM director Dylan Sharma said, likening it to operating two trains that must remain in sync on parallel tracks.