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The best way to understand the Sessions area of Hopin is to think of rooms or groups within your event, gathering around “virtual roundtables.” In this article we will cover how to create a session, and how you can manage your Session during an event.
Creating a Session
To get started, navigate to your Event Dashboard > Venue > Sessions and click on the Add Session button.
Next, you will see the following fields to begin building your Session:
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Title (60 characters max)
The descriptive, easy-to-remember name, attendees will use to find the Session during the event. The Session Title can be changed any time by the Organizer.
Session Description (140 characters max)
Add in some extra details that make the Session stand out.
Additional Information
Here you can add in links, images, videos, and more! Engage your audience with any extra information you think they may need. Follow this guide to for more tips!
Tags
Labels or filters to sort Sessions by categories and help attendees to quickly navigate through multiple Sessions during the event.
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Display Settings
Session display size
A larger size can help your session stand out and attract more users.
Sizes available for Sessions:
- Large (one in a row)
- Medium (two in a row)
Priority
Sessions can be ordered by priority so that higher priority Sessions are more visible at the top of the page.
Session Picture (2MB max)
Choose the image that will be used as a cover for the Sessions tab at the event and as the logo across the event.
Tip: Check our guide on Image dimensions to make sure your images fit just right across the event.Session Picture Alternate Text
Describe your picture so that those who have screen readers know what your picture shows.
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Access
Who can watch
Attendee permission to find and view selected sessions on the Sessions tab.
- Anyone (all attendees can find and watch the Session during the event)
- Private (invitation only) Private Session will not be listed on the Sessions tab within the event and show up to Organizers and invited attendees only
- Specific ticket holders (only attendees with specific tickets can find and watch the Session during the event. Additionally, any scheduled segments linked to these Sessions will only appear to those with the specified tickets.)
- Unlisted (only attendees who have the Session URL sent to them by the Organizer can find and watch the Session during the event). To get the link of an unlisted session, go to the Event Dashboard. On the sessions tab, you'll find the session list. Hover over the Session that you would like to share and you will see 3 icons appear on the right hand side. Click the icon that looks like two links as highlighted in the image below to Go to session. You can then copy and paste the URL directly from the address bar.
Who can share audio/video
Attendee permission to participate with Video/Audio on during the Session.
- Anyone (any event attendee can participate with Video/Audio any time)
- Invite only: only selected attendees will be able to participate with Video/Audio. Attendees who are not invited will be able to watch the session, but won't see the share audio and video button
- Moderated: only Organizers and specified Moderators will control which attendees will have permission to participate with Video/Audio. Moderators have to be registered for the event and can be assigned after setting the session to be moderated
Tip: If you would like to be able to remove Attendee's video/audio feed from the Session, you must have it set to Moderated.Note: In a moderated session, only the Organizers & Moderators can use the YouTube sharing feature, while in an unmoderated session, anyone sharing their audio and video can share a YouTube video.For more details on attendees permission in session, please visit Attendee permissions for Sessions
Maximum participants
The limit of participants that can be on screen at the same time is up to 50, any additional screen share counts towards the limit (this is valid for recorded sessions too).
You can learn more about other limits in our Max On-Screen and Viewer Limits article.
Note: depending on the number of participants on screen, the number of people who can watch the Session will also change.Number of Speakers
(includes number of screenshares)Maximum Viewers 1 5,000 2 3,000
3 3,000
4 3,000
5 1,500
10 1,500 12 1,500 15 1,500 20 1,500 25 1,500 50 500 Note: Any screen sharing takes one participant seat. If there is one Speaker and one screenshare, the system will treat it as two participants. For example, if you have 49 participants, you can only share one additional screen until someone stops sharing their audio/video. -
Session scheduling
When creating your Session, you can choose to have it set to Always open or Scheduled.
Linking a Session to a scheduled segment will make it appear within your Reception area. Here, your attendees will be able to add it to their calendar and/or to My Agenda. When the segment is live, it will display a small "live" label on it. It will also appear within the "what's happening now" card for better visibility. However, if you set your Session to Scheduled but do not link it to a scheduled segment, this Session will not show up in your Event at all.
If you have it set to Always open, then the Session will not be available to connect to any schedule segments and can be accessed at any time during the event.
Note: if a Session is connected to a schedule segment and you change it to Always open then you will be asked to remove it from the schedule.
Tip: A full guide on how to create your schedule can be found here.Sessions that are tied to the Schedule will automatically appear five minutes before the time on Schedule and automatically hide once their time is up, however, you can increase or decrease this number by going to your Event Dashboard > Setup > Basics and clicking on Advanced Settings. Here, under "Sessions Display", you can enable your scheduled Sessions to be displayed for as long as you like before and after their scheduled time.
Note: Attendees can view the list of previous sessions by clicking Show past segments at the Reception area of the event.Organizers can also send the URL to the session for attendees to access the scheduled sessions once the scheduled time is over.
The session will still be live and won't stop even if the time set in the 'Schedule' is over. This means that attendees or speakers will not be removed from the session, however the session itself will not be visible in the 'Sessions' segment of the event any longer.
Note: There is no limit to the number of concurrent sessions you can have during your event. -
Video Content
Enable YouTube sharing?
If enabled, attendees will be able to share YouTube videos in the session.
Click the YouTube icon on the iconbar.
Then, paste the URL to a YouTube video and click Share Video.
The video will start sharing for all attendees on a Session.
Note: Currently, only links to single videos or live streams (vs playlists) are supported.Record this session?
Check the box for the Session to be recorded.
Note: The maximum number of on-screen participants for recorded sessions is 50. There may be a 1/2 second cut-off in between 2-hour recording segments.If you choose to record your session, note that the following will be excluded from your recordings:
- Streaming using RTMP
- Mirroring from a Stage using RTMP
- Integrations such as Miro
- Shared YouTube videos
RTMP Settings
RTMP streaming is simply sharing content from your computer (entire screen, separate app or window, webcam signal, etc.) to Sessions on Hopin with the best video and audio quality possible. You can enable this option by checking the box by Enable RTMP Streaming. Learn more about RTMP in sessions here. You also have the option to mirror an RTMP stream from the stage or another session.
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Apps
Click on Go to the App Store to be able to browse all of the apps available to use within your event. Filter by Event Area to see what you can use in your Sessions.
Once they are installed, you can go back to the sessions page of the event dashboard and you will be able to enable them for individual Sessions.
Can attendees create their own sessions?
Optionally, attendees can create any number of their own sessions during the live event, if the Organizer enables this option. You can find how to do that here.
Searching for Sessions
You can search for individual sessions from the Event Dashboard > Venue > Sessions page and clicking the Filters button. This will open up a small panel where you can search for Sessions based on the date they are active, the tickets they are available to, or the tags associated with them.
Use the x Clear dates/tickets/tags button at the bottom of each section to start a new search.
How to add a moderator
Once the Who Can participate option is set to Moderated, type the name of the session attendee to give them Moderator role and permissions. Please check that your Moderators are also added to the Who can Watch section to make sure they can find and access the Session.
When a moderator is in a session, other attendees can click the button that says Request to Share Audio and Video. Clicking this button will open the moderation panel for the moderator to view who’s requesting and click to add them to the video stream.
Once allowed, the speaker will choose their audio/video devices and then appear on camera. The moderator can take off speakers from the Session screen or the speaker's screen share by clicking the three-dot by the speaker or screen share and click Remove.
Recording sessions
Check the box next to Record this session? to record the session.
Every two hours of a Session duration, new recording blocks will be initiated automatically with a 1-2 seconds gap between the two recording blocks.
Session recordings create unique pieces of content that organizers can use for monetization and marketing purposes. Sessions are recorded in Full HD (1080p at 30fps) and the maximum number of participants on-screen for recorded sessions is 50, any additional screen share or third-party integration sharing counts towards the limit. Recordings include large screen shares with speaker names on their video streams.
You receive all of your event recordings as downloadable MP4s at the end of the event under Event Dashboard > Recordings.
If you choose to record your session, note that the following will be excluded from your recordings:
- Streaming using RTMP
- Mirroring from a Stage using RTMP
- Integrations such as Miro
- Shared YouTube videos
Feel free to reach out to us at support@hopin.com in case you have questions or need assistance.