Meaning of 様子を交える

Question

From an article I'm reading:

今回はこのイベントの様子を交えながら、このプロジェクトを総括します。

I understand 様子 as 'state/appearance', and 交える to mean 'mix', but I'm having problems understanding what they mean together as 'mixed state' doesn't seem to make sense in this case.

Answer 1

「[今回]{こんかい}はこのイベントの[様子]{ようす}を[交]{まじ}えながら、このプロジェクトを[総括]{そうかつ}します。」

The last part is the main clause, naturally. ⇒ 「このプロジェクトを総括します」= "We will recap this project."

While they do the recap, they also want to 「このイベントの様子を交える」 as it says 「ながら」, right?

「このイベント」 and 「このプロジェクト」 are two different things, but they should be fairly closely related. More specifically, the former appears to be a rather important part of the latter (even though only one sentence has been given as context).

「このイベントの様子を交える」 literally means "to mix in scenes from this event". As I stated in the comment section, that usually would consist of "showing actual pieces of footage from the event such as photos, videos, etc."

Answer 2

Let's think 交{まじ}える as 'to mix A with B': AにBを交{まじ}える.

今回はこのイベントの様子{ようす}を交{まじ}えながら、このプロジェクトを総括{そうかつ}します。

As you understand, 様子{ようす} means 'state/appearance' and indicates how someone/thing looks at a moment. In this sentence, it means 'how the event looks', which is A of 'to mix A with B'. B is このプロジェクト 'this project'. So, the sentence means 'This time I will summarize the project by referring to the event how it was.'

Answer 3

I would say that the sentence translates roughly to:

This time, while mixing in [some bits about] the appearance of this event, I will give an overview of this project.

The bracketed part was inserted to make the English translation sound more natural.

One of the most important things to always remember about Japanese is that the language is EXTREMELY context-specific. Without more background it would be impossible for anyone to tell you what the speaker/writer of that sentence really meant. That said, my interpretation is that the speaker was about to give a broad explanation of some project and wanted to emphasize to his/her audience that whatever event he/she previously introduced would be discussed further during the explanation wherever it became relevant.