How GitLab used Hopin to deliver an interactive company-wide conference

About GitLab

GitLab is the world's largest all-remote company with team members located in more than 65 countries. The technology company employs over 1,200 individuals and is used by more than 100,000 organizations around the world.

Challenge

As a fully remote company, GitLab meets annually for its in-person company-wide event, Contribute. In 2020, it was scheduled for five days in late March 2020 in Prague, but due to Covid-19, the corporate events team pivoted to virtual.

We still wanted to provide an elevated meeting experience to encourage networking, workshop sessions, and a bonding experience beyond the everyday Zoom calls.

Lauren Conway

Corporate events manager for GitLab

Solution

GitLab found Hopin when looking for a solution to virtualize its internal 1,200-person event. At the event, live content spread over 12 hours to cover the various time zones that team members were in so that a cohesive in-person feeling reinforced its strong remote culture.

The programming involved two keynotes from the executive leaders and workshop blocks comprised of a selection of live content and D&I roundtables—all live content was team led—and a final party with the theme "Into the Woods" for the networking hours. Costumes were encouraged. The events team sent Prague Contribute swag to their attendees for participating, and the Expo was used to house the session recordings for those in alternate time zones.

Result

We had 1,147 team members register with over 1,100 logging in during the event and participating live," said Conway. "Overall, the event was rated internally at a 4+ and over 90% are eager to participate in another internal virtual event."