Smashing’s First Fully Online Conference: What Worked

SmashingConf Live! took place last week — the first in a run of online events that will carry the conference series through to the end of 2020. For the team behind Smashing, it was a new way of working: normally conferences are the one occasion where the whole distributed team gathers in person. This time, everyone stayed put, and the event’s Slack became a gallery of home setups as both staff and attendees shared how they were tuning in.

The full team behind the scenes spanned eight time zones, with volunteers, event staff, and Smashing regulars in Canada, the USA, Germany, the UK, Spain, Italy, Sweden, and Hong Kong. Beyond the talks themselves, the effort covered marketing, partnerships, membership, and illustration duties.

Picking a Platform That Could Host the Fun

A core requirement for the platform was preserving the interactive spirit of an in-person SmashingConf — side stages, games, Q&A with speakers, and the main track all in one place. Zoom was fine for workshops, but the team didn’t want two days of webinar-style presentation. After evaluating options, they settled on Hopin, a platform already trialed at Smashing Meets events, but never at this scale. The experiment paid off: the technical side ran clean, and speakers reported that presenting felt far more like engaging with a live audience than talking to a screen.

More Than Just Talks

The multi-track format meant a large speaker lineup. To capture the highlights, attendees collaborated on shared Google Docs of key takeaways for each day — Day One and Day Two — while MC Phil Hawksworth kept the main stage flowing. Ximena’s sketchnotes offered visual summaries of several sessions, and DJ Tobi provided music between main-stage talks, mimicking the vibe of the in-person events.

The conference also introduced virtual badges, a set of 96 cat-themed designs. Attendees took to hunting for all of them, and the badges quickly became a talking point. It was a small touch, but it helped the event feel less like a webinar and more like an actual gathering — complete with the appearance of several attendees’ real cats on camera.

Three More Online SmashingConfs Before 2021

With all 2020 events moved online, there are three remaining chances to join:

  • SmashingConf Freiburg Online (Sep 7–8): One track, two days, and 13 speakers, run on the original dates and aligned to Central European time for a European-friendly schedule.
  • SmashingConf Austin/NY Online (Oct 13–14): Programming from both the Austin and New York events has been merged into one conference, timed for Central Time as if the event were still taking place in Austin.
  • SmashingConf SF Online (Nov 10–11): A Pacific-time send-off for the year, billed as the celebration to close out 2020.