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Hybrid graduation is a combination of traditional graduation and online graduation. Hybrid graduations are in person graduations born in the COVID 19 pandemic, with the health guidelines enforced and taken into consideration. Hybrid grads can take many forms, drive-through graduations, limited seating graduations with a combination of in person and online experience, etc.

 

Graduations are events where institutions honour or confer academic achievements of its graduates. At these recognitions of achievements students or graduates are generally accompanied by family or loved ones.  

 

These celebrations are extended beyond the academic recognition with family and friends. This whole celebratory mood of traditional graduations has been halted suddenly by the pandemic for institutions and communities which had to seek alternatives like online graduations and hybrid graduations.

Here at Nickay we have been in the graduations industry for the past 20 years and have seen how our industry has progressed with the advent of digital technology, yet no one had prepared us for COVID 19’s effects on these important events.

The pandemic has changed the way we do things to the “New Normal” to the point that now almost two years later virtual graduations are the “Normal”. We have done various versions of virtual graduations this past nineteen months and one thing stays top of mind. What is the importance of graduations? The most successful graduations for all parties concerned is the virtual grads that give recognition to graduates efforts in some form or another.

We have found that hybrid graduations have been the graduations which has achieved this feel good and celebratory feel amongst graduates and their communities. To most individuals feeling valued or valued for their efforts has a huge effect on how institutions are perceived and to what extent these institutions honour this effort. Institutions need to see graduations as part of marketing especially with such an active online community due to the pandemic

A combination of traditional graduations with limited guest and an online component of the graduation will be the graduations of the future for a while. It is important that this online component not be static but engaging. By engaging the audience, we raise the importance of the event for graduates and the communities at large, even reaching a global audience. We have found that photographing graduates with their family or loved ones adds to this celebratory feel of the graduation.

Being 20 years in the graduation industry COVID 19 has truly highlighted the importance of Graduation Photography. We at Nickay have devised an e-commerce platform in 2018, to improve our service to our clients and to future proof our systems. This investment has been most beneficial in the pandemic to our clients and institutions as contact with individuals has been kept to a minimum. With an online cart we had no reason to deal with cash onsite and limited the size of our Team which all lead to reduced risk or exposure and institutions staying compliant with COVID 19 guidelines.

Where will we be as a country or a global village next year this time? No one knows, yet this pandemic has made communities and organisations do things differently. The global village has just got smaller, and the online entrepreneurs has grown exponentially. Online and the use of Technology has grown in markets which were slow in adopting technology and Graduations are one of these forced into a different way of doing things.

The “New Normal” is so last year! Online and embracing online, because it's here to stay, the “NORMAL”