In April 2022, Atkins Library at UNC Charlotte hosted the Digital Humanities Institute, a conference that brings together digital humanities enthusiasts from across the state of North Carolina to discuss digital pedagogy, digital research methods, and digital projects. In fall 2020 the conference was hosted wholly remotely in light of the COVID-19 pandemic. In spring 2022, with vaccines more readily available and universities exploring hybrid situations, the conference planning committee grappled with how to navigate hosting a conference in an increasingly hybrid world. Ultimately, after conversations with working groups within the library and at the Digital Humanities Collaborative of North Carolina (DHC-NC), we decided to try to achieve the best of both remote and virtual conferences, hosting a day of wholly virtual sessions as well as in-person meetups throughout the state. This set-up benefited from the increased access that virtual conferences offer (allowing participants to attend without the barriers of travel costs and location) while also providing for the in-person networking people value in attending conferences. This lightning talk will discuss how we planned for both events, problems we encountered, and feedback from attendees. Presented at the 2022 conference "Virtually Together: Enlightening the Future," co-sponsored by ACRL-NC Chapter and NCLINe.
