Picture: Lisa Ferguson

As anyone working in events knows, autumn is a busy old time.
 
This year, I have hosted a real mixture of online, in-person and hybrid events throughout September and October. 
 
Everyone thought hybrid events would become the new normal in the post-pandemic world. So were they right?
 
To give a politician's (or a lawyer's) answer: It depends. Or maybe, more accurately, the jury is still out.
 
As an event host, I've really enjoyed being back in front of an audience and seeing the whites of their eyes, rather than their whitewashed bedroom walls and Egyptian cotton sheets.
 
One recent event I hosted for more than 300 people was in-person only. 
 
That made it easy for me to stand at the lectern, scan the room and get a real feel for the audience. I knew pretty much straight away whether they were finding my jokes funny (broadly, yes1).
 
Three other recent in-person events had an online delegate option, with the camera for the live feed set up at the back of the room.
 
In both cases, the conference organiser pointed the cameras out to me at the beginning of the day and reminded me: "Look at them every now and again."
 
I tried to, I really did - but was I truly engaging with the online delegates as effectively as the in-person ones? I'm not sure I was.
 
One event was using an online app to allow all delegates to post questions, so in that sense, I was engaging with all delegates.
 
However, for much of the time, I was listening intently to the speaker - and formulating my own questions for them. I definitely wasn't fully engaged with the online attendees.
 
Afterwards, I wondered about their experience of the event - and about two things in particular.
 
Firstly, when the in-person delegates got up to go to the toilet, or left a session for another reason, some of them would have crossed in front of the camera.
 
Secondly, some of the speakers had a habit of moving away from the lectern and table mics - and even in the room, it was at times slightly difficult to hear what they were saying.
 
Even worse, one session chair (while I was having a break) took questions from the room (after being asked not to) and the first couple were asked without a mic. 
 
It wasn't a massive audience, so this was fine in the room as the questions were audible - but probably not so fine for the online delegates. 
 
So what impact might this have had? I don't know, but I suspect some online delegates might have switched off.
 
We've all got pretty used to online events - and have perhaps become more demanding over time. As delegates, we need to be engaged by great content, changes of pace and voice, short and sharp questions and slickly-run panel discussions.
 
If that's not delivered, we might switch off an online-only event. If you add in poor audio and bodies moving in front of the camera feed, I'd say people are more likely to switch off if they have joined an in-person event as an online delegate.
 
Online-only events offer pretty much the same experience for everybody - faces on the screen talking - and they live or die by their content.
 
Hybrid events face the double challenge of delivering strong and compelling content, but also ensuring it's easy to watch.
 
So I'm really interested in what events companies are hearing about online delegates' experience of hybrid events. And what are people doing to make it a really good experience? Is everyone taking the online delegate experience seriously, or just setting up a camera and ticking the box?
 
For those taking it seriously, and using several cameras and angles, what does that mean in terms of human and financial resources?
 
Can online delegates be given the same high-quality experience as those attending in-person (accepting that there are no free pens or stress-balls and they will need to provide their own refreshments)?
 
And in the light of all this, a fundamental question: Do hybrid events work - for everybody?