This past month, ohyay hosted attendees across thousands of virtual event spaces, from a salon with Drew Barrymore to a storytelling event with Chicago Sun Times journalists. The common thread? A standout number of events were built by women, for women.
Two all-female teams created intricate virtual spaces within a week of learning ohyay on YouTube. For their first annual Financial Empowerment Conference, the Prosp(a)rity Project team built a one-of-a-kind finance jeopardy game, panels, and more. Later in May, the New Mexico Black Leadership Council constructed a town hall space with an army of action buttons and a control room, from where they orchestrated a multi-speaker event.
Through custom speed dating breakouts on ohyay, various groups of women were able to make new connections in their industries as well as deepen existing relationships. Berkeley’s business school, Haas, hosted a meet-and-greet for newly admitted women on a virtual iteration of their campus, while the Toronto branch of Film Fatales shuffled guests into rooftop gardens and happy hour spaces with icebreaker questions.
The second Women Work F — ing Hard virtual salon on ohyay raised over $2,000 for the Women’s Prison Association, the oldest advocacy group for women in the United States. After watching a recipe demo from Drew Barrymore and hearing from female conversation-starters in the cannabis industry, guests moved into a variety of rooms, including an animated space lounge with floating chairs, branded photo booths, and virtual shops that allowed guests to buy from and talk to women-owned cannabis vendors.
Below, discover more inspiring events that were hosted on ohyay this past month!
Local Live(s) with the Chicago Sun Times
Local Live(s), a project that reimagines how journalists tell stories, hosted a live virtual event featuring Chicago Sun Times’ reporters and readers. Chicago Sun Times journalists took to the stage to tell the deeply personal stories behind their headlines, interspersed with a performance from local neo-soul musician, Ausar, and a poll about the event. “The ohyay team empowered us to use their platform in creative, versatile ways. It’s honestly amazing what the software can do,” said Tay Glass, Local Live(s) producer.
Bilingual Wedding
David and Marie Norta heard about ohyay from a friend and decided that there was no better place to host their wedding. The Franco-German couple created a rooftop garden overlooking the Paris skyline, a language toggle so that guests could experience the event in either English or French, and more. During the ceremony, which was live streamed into ohyay, the couple watched “explosions of emoji reactions and felt like we were surrounded by our friends,” said David.
