Hi Eevee,
As you know, the EA Global team are currently running the event in Oakland, but we've seen this and will share some thoughts after the event (and some time off).
FYI this was briefly discussed a few years back.
In our survey data from EAG London 2021, where we tried this, we see that the virtual participants had a lower likelihood to recommend (8.1 vs. 9.1) and made ~4x fewer connections than in-person attendees (10.2 vs. 2.4).
I think Lizka expressed the main case against well (as does Neel)
lots of in-person attendees or speakers who would want to interact with people who are attending virtually are too busy with the in-person conference, the organizers are split between the two sides (and largely focus on the more involved in-person side), and there's a bit more confusion about how everything works.
I expect that this effect will be even stronger now that there are regular virtual events (i.e. fewer virtual attendees would attend hybrid events). If the main benefit comes from watching content, that's usually posted on Youtube shortly after the event (though not livestreamed)
I wish there were options to participate virtually in mainline EAG events—or, failing that, an EAGxVirtual every 3-4 months.
I registered for EAG Bay Area 2025, but sadly, due to unexpected personal issues and costs, I was unable to attend. I would've still loved to hang out on the Swapcard and meet people virtually even though I couldn't make it in person. I know there are often people who end up having to miss all or part of EAG due to sudden COVID-19 infections.
A lot of tech conferences have gone hybrid, including Black Hat USA (a cybersecurity conference), Open Data Science Conference (ODSC), and NeurIPS in past years. Yet all EAG(x) conferences, at least in recent memory, have been either all-virtual or fully in-person.
Any thoughts on the pros and cons of making EAG a "hybrid" event or how to make it engaging for both virtual and in-person participants? For example:
Also, maybe to make things easier for in-person conference attendees who may have to change their plans suddenly (e.g. if they get sick), there could be a customized travel insurance plan that makes it easier to cancel if necessary, as a middle ground between full financial assistance by CEA and having to foot the bill even if your plans change. This could be offered by a third-party insurance company in partnership with CEA.
To me, it seems like it would be much more valuable to have a fully virtual event rather than one where all the in-person people want to prioritise other in-person people. I don't know how the costs of organising an additional virtual event could compare to hybridizing an in-person event that would happen anyway would be, however