Accessing Building Museums™

A guide to Hopin

Conference Dates*

Virtual Conference | March 1-4, 2021

*Ready, Aim, Build will be held over Zoom

All About Hopin

Hopin is the world’s leading all-in-one virtual event platform. (Hopin.com)

This year, Building Museums™ will occur March 1-4, 2021 using a platform called Hopin.

Hopin is a web-based virtual event platform with 5 key areas: Reception, Stage, Sessions, Networking, and Expo. In the following document, we’ll tell you a little more about how to create your Hopin profile, access the virtual conference, and navigate between these 5 key areas.

Getting Started

First, please register for Building Museums™ on Eventbrite. About two weeks prior to the event (the week of Feb 15th), you’ll receive a note from us asking you to “register” for Hopin and create a profile. You’ll use this Hopin profile to access the virtual conference events, so keep your user ID and password handy!

Once you create a profile, you can view the Building Museums™ Schedule. Check your email for instructions on how to view the Schedule.

Once on the Schedule, you can view speakers, and add the event to your calendar. 

• Hopin will send a reminder email 24 hours and 1 hour prior to the sessions you’ve added to your calendar. 

The Five Key Areas

1. Reception: The Landing Page– When you log in to the conference, Reception Area. In the taskbar on the left side, you should see the other 4 distinct areas of the conference – Stage, Sessions, Networking, and Expo. You will navigate to each area by simply clicking on them. 
2. Stage: UPDATE: We will not be using the stage as part of this event. All keynotes, plenaries, and the Buildy Award presentation will be held through Zoom. Links to these presentations will be listed on the Hopin schedule.
3. Sessions: Breakout sessions and expo and session breaks will occur in this area. Simply click into the session you’d like to attend. Some time slots will have concurrent sessions, some will have just one happening at a time. When you click into a session, you’ll be in Viewing Mode by default. Caution! Don’t click the “Share Audio and Video” button at the top – that will put you on camera! Make sure to type a ‘hello’ into the chat so our panelists know who’s watching! Towards the end of the session, the session moderator or speaker will open the floor to questions and comments. You can ask questions directly in the chat.
4. Networking: From 5:00 PM to 6:00 PM each day, head over to the Networking section for some one-on-one conversations! Click “Ready” and you will be paired up with another person for a quick video chat (up to 3 minutes). If you both hit “Connect” at the end of the call, then your info will be exchanged digitally so you can follow up later.
5. Expo: This is where our Virtual Exhibitors are! The Expo area will open each day at 1:00 PM EST. There are two fifteen minute “Expo/Session Breaks’ at 2:30 PM EST and 3:45 PM EST each day of the conference. The Expo Area will also be featured from 5:00 PM to 6:00 PM EST on March 1 and 3rd. Some of the exhibitors may be ‘going live’ and will be available to speak with you during these times. If vendors are not live in their booth, they will have content and links for you to explore. You can register interest and let them know you’ve stopped by the booth and would like to follow up with them by clicking on the big blue ‘Register Interest’ or “Request to Follow Up’ button. There is also a chat function in the booth as well.

About Chat Areas

All areas of the Conference have dedicated ‘chat spaces’. There is an All-Conference Chat that everyone in the Conference can see, Session-specific (or Stage-Specific) Chats that can only be seen when you are in the sessions, and booth chats, which can only be seen when you are in that specific expo booth. MAAM will use the All-Conference Chat to send messages to all attendees. You can also connect directly with others who are at Building Museums™ by navigating to the “People” tab, and clicking on someone’s name. From there, you can view their profile, send a direct message (when you have a direct message, a notification will appear up next your profile picture as a red dot in the envelope icon), or even invite them to a one on one video chat.

If you’re on social media, make sure to share a photo of you, your screen, your thoughts, etc – and tag us @midatlanticmuse on Twitter and @midatlanticmuseums on Facebook. 

Social Media Hashtag #BuildingMuseums