For people concerned about the hugging: at conferences like these, people tend to go every year and from all over (I see this is a California-specific conference so probably not all over as in people attending from North Dakota, but California is a big state so picture all over being from the north to the south of the state) so this may be the first time you’ve seen an old friend/acquaintance in a while. A hug as a greeting wouldn’t be unheard of or inappropriate in this setting.