Virtual events became a necessity during the pandemic, but they didn’t disappear when in-person gatherings returned. Today, organizations have more options than ever for bringing people together.
So, how do you decide what makes sense for your next event?
Before you pick a venue, send a Zoom link, or try to do both, start with three things: your purpose, your audience, and the experience you want to create.
Start With Your Purpose
Two events can look similar on a calendar, but can have completely different needs. A training designed to share information doesn’t need the same environment as a conference designed to build relationships.
Virtual events tend to work well when content is the main draw, attendees are geographically dispersed, or travel could prevent people from participating.
Take the Maryland Economic Development Association’s Chesapeake Basic Economic Development Course. The week-long professional certification course is held each summer virtually, with roughly half of its registrants coming from outside Maryland. The content and credential draw people, not the room. Staying virtual also makes the course more accessible to economic development organizations with limited travel budgets.
In other cases, being together is part of the purpose.
MEDA’s in-person conferences combine educational sessions with networking and opportunities to celebrate Maryland’s economic development community. The International Economic Development Council’s 2026 Leadership Summit offers another example. More than 600 economic development leaders gathered in Washington, D.C., for an event centered on advocacy, partnership-building, and hands-on sessions.
Look Beyond the Price Tag
Virtual events generally cost less, but “cheaper” doesn’t necessarily mean better value.
For in-person events, costs can include the venue, food and beverage, audiovisual support, travel, accommodations, signage, and staffing. Travel can be an especially important factor. A local audience may make an in-person event more manageable, while flights and hotels for a national audience can quickly change the equation.
Virtual isn’t free either! A well-produced event still requires the right platform, production support, and staff to manage the experience.
Instead of asking only, “Which format costs less?” ask “Where will our budget have the greatest impact?”
Think About the Attendee Experience
Virtual events have a clear advantage in reach and flexibility. They can open the door to people who can’t justify the cost of travel, take additional time away from the office, or easily participate in an in-person event.
In-person events have a different advantage: connection.
A hallway conversation, an introduction over lunch, or the person you happen to sit beside can lead to relationships that are hard to build through a screen.
But neither format automatically creates an engaged audience. Virtual attendees may multitask, drop off, or treat the event as background noise. An in-person event can also fall flat if attendees spend the entire day listening without opportunities to participate or connect.
Accessibility matters in both formats, too. Virtual events can remove barriers related to travel, cost, and physical mobility while creating others related to internet access, technology, captioning, and time zones.
The format may change, but the need to design around your audience doesn’t.
Don’t Assume Hybrid is the Easy Answer
Hybrid sounds like the obvious solution: offer both and let attendees choose.
In practie, hybrid can be one of the most challenging formats to execute well because you’re essentially creating two attendee experiences at the same time.
Remote attendees need to be able to hear, participate, ask questions, and feel included, not simply watch a static camera pointed toward the stage. That takes technology, staffing, and intentional planning.
Hybrid can make sense when your audience is split between those who can attend in person and those who cannot. But if your budget or team can’t create a strong experience for both groups, one well-executed format may be better than trying to do everything.
The Bottom Line
There is no universal winner between virtual and in-person events. The right choice depends on what you want attendees to learn, do, or take away, who you need to reach, and where your resources will have the most impact.
The venue or Zoom link comes second. The strategy comes first.
If you’re thinking through the right format for an upcoming event, I’d love to hear what you’re planning.
