By Louisa Hanson

Over the past two years, we’ve all had a crash course in an innumerable range of online platforms – Zoom, Google Meets, Streamyard, and everything in between for seemingly every need. For #PSEWEB 2022, to enhance the hybrid experience for our attendees at a distance, we’ll utilize the platform Hopin, with the express mission of bridging the gap between in-person and remote attendees and ensuring that everyone, no matter their location, gets everything they can out of the conference! Hopin provides an immersive and interactive hybrid experience for audiences across the country and the world., Here’s some of the innovative features that we’ll use at #PSEWEB  2022. 

Hopin’s Virtual Venue feature provides interactive programming including polls, chats, and Q&As to foster connections between in-person and virtual attendees. Attendees can break out into concurrent live sessions, guided fully by moderators and engaging with multiple speakers. Beyond presentations, Hopin supports both one-on-one and group networking sessions, to allow everyone to connect regardless of their location. To encourage engagement and draw inspiration from fellow attendees, breakout room topics are brainstormed by participants themselves! Closed captions are generated to ensure accessibility, and content is available on demand for folks in different time zones (no midnight panel sessions!). The event stages, through which speakers can screenshare, also allow engagement through shared presentations, PDFs, videos, playlists, and more.

Beyond Hopin’s exciting features for the engagement during the conference, they also offer a reception page with a customized event schedule and tags for easy session and speaker discoverability. Hopin can be accessed via web browser or mobile/desktop application – if you choose to use a web browser, it’s recommended to use Google Chrome or Microsoft Edge on desktop, and the default web browser on mobile. Downloading the app on desktop or mobile is quite straightforward, and can be done in six quick steps!

1. Visit the App Store or Google Play store
2. Download and open the Hopin app, and click Log In (do not use the Apple/Facebook/Google login options)
3. Click the “Your email address” field at the bottom and enter the email you used to register for the conference
4. Continue to sign in
5. Enter your password if you’ve set it, and if not, use “Forgot your password” to set a password through your email
6. Once you have set a password, continue logging in on the app, and then you’re all set!

If you’d prefer to use a browser on mobile or desktop, just wait for the “Invitation” email with the virtual access link for #PSEWEB 2022, as the link within the email functions as your personal access to the virtual venue. The “Events” tab will display your upcoming events as well as past events, and the “Connections” tab will allow you to see a list of everyone you’ve connected with over the course of the events in networking sessions.

In the off chance any attendee runs into difficulty with the platform, Hopin support is available 24/7 to help. We are so thrilled to finally reunite in 2022, and distance will be no object with Hopin!