This New Tech Platform Is Ushering in the Hybrid Events Era

With more than a decade of experience in the software space, a tech-based service company with local ties has launched a toolbox to assist organizers in designing events of the future—ones that are based on hybrid experiences.

As the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has hindered mass in-person gatherings for the past year, event planners have been forced to iterate. Zoom toasts, virtual salutations, video panels, and chat rooms quickly became the new ‘normal’ when it came to conferences, seminars, and award shows. But now, the vaccine is slowly rolling out across the country, and the entertainment industry is responding.

Experts see the next trend in events as more of a hybrid format, one that allows virtual participants and an in-person audience.

To JUNO, this is called the “intersection of connectivity.”

“Like any intersection, those roads may be the same size, or one may be wider than the other,” the company says on its website. “As the industry looks toward hybrid and as JUNO continues to innovate and grow, we see traffic officers may be needed.”

JUNO, an online event platform created as an innovative response to COVID-19, launched last summer. “We needed a live solution, we can serve this need, so let’s do it,” CEO Josh Hotsenpiller said at the time.

With its specialty in both live and on-demand digital platforms, the company aims to engage and grow the events community, every day.

The platform team, which is less than a year old, is scattered across the country. Dana Freker Doody, the VP of Marketing and Communications, and Gabe Casey, the VP of Client Success, both reside in Dallas and told Dallas Innovates they are committed to hiring additional local talent.

Casey joined JUNO after serving as chief technology officer at Irving-based American College of Emergency Physicians. He wanted a way to help other association and corporate professionals navigate virtual and hybrid events, and was attracted to JUNO’s mission to creating a digital platform that grows human connections.

Most recently, JUNO released its digital framework for use with virtual meetings and events. Fittingly named “Intersections of Connectivity,” the guide is a way for event organizers to take on their own hybrid experiences, in which virtual participants ‘cross paths’ with the in-person audience at the physical venue.

“Think about how to recreate the lobbies, the coffees, the trade show floors where two human beings can intersect to connect—to encourage each other, inspire each other, educate each other, buy and sell with one another. That is the vision—that is what JUNO helps create,” JUNO’s Hotsenpiller, who is based in San Diego, said. “The future is hybrid; hybrid is the intersection of connectivity. When people are connecting and getting educated, we all win.”

Inside the Intersections of Connectivity ebook is a step-by-step how-to on retracing, erasing, and replacing event elements to create an experience that spans across avenues. The JUNO team hopes it will allow organizers to move through the ‘intersection’ freely to successfully achieve personal, digital, and hybrid goals.

“JUNO makes events boundaryless,” Hotsenpiller said. “So that whether participants are in their living room or in the ballroom, they can stream keynotes, participate in sessions, get recommended matchmaking suggestions, instantly chat and video one-on-one, interact with sponsors and connect with exhibitor.”