UK 
United StatesNearly half a decade after businesses were tossed head over heels into the furor of video meetings, virtual conferences, and remote or hybrid work, most people would admit their workplaces still stutter through many of the same issues they did on day one.
Incorrect meeting invites, unexpected software updates, and missing microphones and cables continue to plague meetings and disrupt the natural flow of conversation between remote and office-based staff.
These issues are felt profoundly during quarterly and annual company summits. Businesses attempt to unite employees for much-needed celebration and productive conversation are stopped in their tracks. Frustrations settle in. The much-prized employee experience compromised one of the key company meeting points.
One company, however, has managed to pin down the blueprint to a perfect hybrid conference. Earlier in 2024, broadcasting company Vizrt hosted its annual ‘One Vizion’ summit, a three-day internal conference bringing together over 200 employees in person, and hundreds more online from its 40 offices across the world.
Anna Dahlfors, Global Head of HR at Vizrt, speaks to HR Grapevine to share how the company mastered the execution of a hybrid company conference, unifying over 700 employees for three days of reflection, goal-setting, and engagement.
One Vizion: Why productive company conferences are so important (but tricky to get tight)
For any global company with hundreds of colleagues, ensuring everyone is on the same page at any given time is a challenge. Vizrt’s primary goal in bringing everyone together ahead of its annual conference, therefore, was to align all its staff with the company’s vision—no prizes for figuring this out from the summit’s name.
But for the broadcasting company, bringing together employees was also important for reasons that will resonate for any hybrid or remote employer, particularly those working at scale.
“We also hoped the event would also ignite greater collaboration between staff and also help with strengthening connections across teams that normally wouldn’t interact day to day,” says Dahlfors.
Anna Dahlfors
Global Head of HR at Vizrt
As a business supportive of flexibility and the value of remote work, however – and well aware of the importance of effective communication and delivery given their industry – Vizrt also knew that the conference would need to be equally as engaging for those watching along virtually, as it was for those with boots, heels, and smart-casual trainers on the ground.
“By transforming an in-person event into an interactive hybrid production, we hoped that all talks and activities would be engaging for everybody, so all staff - regardless of where they are located - could benefit from the team building-like feel of the event,” Dahlfors adds. “As a company we help a huge range of content creators, from individuals to the world’s largest media organisations such as Al Jazeera, BBC, CNN, CBS, FOX and more… So, it was only natural for us to create an event that embodied this same full-scale ‘production’ set up using our own technology.”
