I stumbled upon a press release of a conference that just announced their panelists and presenters for their 2009 virtual event. I was fascinated that they were planning an in-person, face-to-face conference to compliment the virtual event taking place in June 2009.

Why was I so fascinated? Most people believe that virtual events take the place of in-person events. And while I’m a proponent of hosting your own virtual event, I still see the value of integrating a face-to-face component to enhance the attendee experience.

My colleague, Paul Colligan, holds an annual reunion class for all alumni of his virtual program called Podcast Secrets that he co-hosts with Alex Mandossian. I attended the event last year in Las Vegas as Paul’s guest and was fascinated that just under 50 people attended.

Paul blogged about the reason why holding an in-person event was a necessary – and important – addition to the virtual component. In particular, Paul said:

“The virtual, the timeshift, the online – it’s all good – and it lets us do some very powerful things but sometimes … you need the face to face. Sometimes you need to shake a hand, or heck even hug someone to help put it all together.”

If you plan on hosting virtual events, I highly recommend that you incorporate an in-person aspect as well. As Paul stated, it really helps to enhance the learning experience. You really can’t do one without the other.