THE HANDY GUIDE to Cashing in the Currency of
NETWORKING
Table of Contents An Insight into Event Networking
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Different Stakeholders Involved in Event Networking
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The Ins and Outs of an Event Networking Platform
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How Technology is Helping in Setting ‘Business Dates’
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Why Event Networking Platform is an Excellent Investment
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Bonus Chapter: 10 Unconventional Ways in Which Event Planners have Facilitated Networking at Events
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INTRODUCTION Human beings are social animals. We are interdependent. This is a fact that applies to almost every aspect of our lives. From a professional perspective, an effective network is crucial to success. The people you know do matter. But, how exactly do you build these contacts? How exactly do you network? Worry not, for in this book we shall cover the essential basics of networking. From essential tips to networking technology, here’s your ultimate guide to cashing in the true currency of networking.
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1 AN INSIGHT INTO EVENT NETWORKING Meetings, conventions, conferences, and trade shows are the market leaders of the event industry in the 21st century. The US alone accounts for 1.8 million business meetings, conferences, trade shows etc. with more than 205 million attendees. Being a part of any corporate industry in the world, you too must have noticed and attended many local, national or even global conferences and events of your industry. But despite these numbers, most attendees often fail to answer one simple question: What long-term benefits do you gain from attending a conference? Google search ‘Benefits of attending conferences’ and you will come across no less than a 100 of them. But how many of those benefits do you actually find applicable in your case? Attending a large-scale conference is no big deal. Your contact and your company’s extended networks would help you find an entry in many extravagant events.
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AN INSIGHT INTO EVENT NETWORKING
Business events are a great source for building contacts. Networking is one of the most essential aspects of attending such gatherings. Good, meaningful business relationships are an important takeaway from any event. Event planners have realized the importance of networking for attendees. That is why a majority of event planners these days make sure to facilitate networking in some way or the other. It could be an ice-breaking event or a networking session. But in order to ensure that you actually yield something out of it, one needs to prepare. Let us understand where to begin with for these preparations.
Understanding the Achievable Before beginning the preparations, jot down the answer to this question: What do you aim to achieve from attending a professional event? Go on with this blog if your list somewhat matches to this one. • Expanding industry knowledge • Long-term Networking Now that we have on hand our requirements and the achievable benefits, we can begin with the preparations.
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AN INSIGHT INTO EVENT NETWORKING
Expand your knowledge horizons While the books and blogs you read have an enormous amount of knowledge, learning things from your industry speakers and influencers is a totally different thing. Not only do you get to find out the deeper insights of the industry, you also get to learn about the recent trends, technologies, and innovations in the industry. But the question remains, how to retain their deliverables for a long time?
Knowledge Management A recent survey says that the amount of information received by a person every day is equivalent to reading 174 newspapers daily. Adding to it, you have the information given by these conference speakers. Such information overdose prevents you from perceiving more than 80% of what is received. Thus, if you want to actually yield something out of what those speakers said in the last event, manage the information you receive. A few simple steps would help you do this.
• Record the sessions Use audio/video recorders or simply take down digital notes to record the information received. Store them and keep them accessible.
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Once you have all the delivered information available, you can decide which things make sense to you and which ones don’t. Plus, this will help you have a revision of the information long-time after the event. All you need to do is go back to your records!
• Filter and choose Every event would have a number of talks and presentations. It is humanly impossible and practically a waste to attend every single one of these. That is why, it is crucial that before going to the event, go through the sessions’ details and filter out the sessions which would be useful for you. Get the details of the speakers and analyze the usefulness of the session for you. This way, you would save your time by skipping the unnecessary ones.
• Question, learn, network Industry leaders function as the speakers of professional events. This is the reason the speakers are masters in the field. While attending their presentations, feel free to interact with them and come up with questions. Not only during the presentation, you can continue the conversation after it as well. This will not only help you learn but also network with these pioneers.
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• Have your own discussions Never limit yourself to the discussions taking place in the event. Bring out your learning and use the information to have other discussions as well. Interact with your office colleagues or other peers and understand the topic way better.
Build long-term business networks Though learning is a benefit of attending professional events, it is the secondary goal of most of the attendees. The primary goal, however, is to build a network. Meeting people from various domains of your industry can help you build crucial long-term relationships for your professional life. These networks can help you grow your clientele, find you new sponsors or just help you in various parts of your business. However, you need to strategize your networking beforehand in order to build only useful contacts. After all, you don’t want to waste your time with people totally unrelated to your industry and business.
The Mere Exposure Effect Familiarity principle or what psychologists call the ‘mere exposure effect’ is a very efficient method of networking at professional events. This principle says that when exposed to a person, idea or thing repeatedly, our inclination towards it increases and we find it more preferable. You can use this principle efficiently to build useful networks at your next professional event. How? Let’s see:
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• The Starters Before introducing yourself and making use of the familiarity principle, you need some preparations. First of all, recognize the people you wish to build contacts with. There are going to be a lot of fellow attendees and speakers. Building contacts with all of them is not possible. That is why it is essential to filter out the relevant people. Find the industries they belong to and understand if their contact can help you. Shortlist the people you wish to network with and learn more about them in detail.
• The Execution Now that you know the people, it is time to interact and execute the principle we discussed. Begin this process before the event. Create small relevant surveys or polls on the event community. Ask questions from the speakers sessions which might be useful to other attendees as well. Or simply strike up a discussion on a significant topic. This will help other attendees recognize you.
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Such knowledge distribution would play the role of the second trigger in the familiarization process. It will not only help you get recognized but also give you some perspective about your fellow attendees. It will help you build a positive reputation for yourself and other attendees would look up to your knowledge and findings. After having these conversations and discussions, you have now become known to other attendees. You can also use the networking platform to set up meetings with attendees you find important. Your pre-established recognition would help you set up these meetings easily.
• Sidestep the Bummers Even after all such preparations, you can still end up with no or minimal results. Everything discussed for networking till now is the preparatory stage. The actual results are gained post the meetings you have. There are a lot of mistakes you can create in these meeting. Make sure to sidestep them.
a. Network with a plan Don’t just go on networking with people from your industry. Ensure to filter out the people before you begin networking. If not, you might end up in a meeting without any goal at all.
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b. Get the details In order to understand the mutual benefits that you and your potential network can provide, you need to know them. Find out the details of their business and understand how you can be helpful to each other.
c. Define the purpose Once you choose your networks, define the purpose of the meeting to yourself and to them as well. This includes things like why do you wish to network with them or what benefits can they yield from this meeting.
d. Be ready with the content  Have some topics in mind and ensure that you are reaching the meeting with your content ready. Though it might not be a meeting where you are presenting something, but given the fact that you have approached them, you need something to work on. You can either have mutual ideas to share or you can brief them with your business model and ask them for the support that you require from them.
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AN INSIGHT INTO EVENT NETWORKING
Networking and learning are two very broad domains of benefits of attending events. As an attendee, in order to ensure to make the most of an event, just clearly define your goals and motives behind attending these events. Once you are clear with that, you can prepare accordingly and make sure that another event attended won’t be in vain. As an event planner, it is easy to find ways to facilitate event networking once you learn the workings of the process. Understanding how your attendees aim to gain maximum ROI through your event using these networking tips will help you work on delivering the same. Overall, there are a number of stakeholders involved in the process of event networking. Let us discuss these stakeholders in the next chapter.
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2 STAKEHOLDERS INVOLVED IN EVENT NETWORKING Contrary to popular belief, networking is not just about the attendees. There are a lot of other stakeholders as well that need your attention when it comes to event networking. While the basics of networking remain the same for all, the goals they are trying to achieve through networking are usually very different. The target stakeholders they wish to work with also differ according to their motives. Identifying these different stakeholders of event networking and understanding their requirements is very crucial. Only after such a thorough analysis can you develop networking tools that would be beneficial for them all. Let us have a quick look at all of these stakeholders:
1. Sponsors: The mutually-benefiting relationship between a sponsor and an event organiser goes beyond the aspects of money. While a sponsor can add to your event’s success in many different ways, you can also impact their ROI by considering their role in networking. The primary goal of sponsors is usually to network with their potential customers who usually are your attendees.
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STAKEHOLDERS INVOLVED IN EVENT NETWORKING
Companies wish to sponsor events because unlike traditional advertisements, they get to have a live interaction with their target audience. That is why, sponsors usually wish to influence them in an impactful way at events rather than simply putting up product or services advertisements. Being an event prof, it is your responsibility to ensure that the sponsors get all the required channels for such promotional activities.
2. Exhibitors/ Traders: If you are organising tradeshows or exhibitions, the traders or exhibitors will also be added to your list of networking stakeholders. While the formal setting of such events provides them with some audience exposure, it is usually not enough. They need other ways as well to showcase their ideas, products, services, etc. They need some more interactive ways that would help them network with their target audience before or after the formal exhibition. This is necessary for them because such extra interactions help them connect with their target audience better and fulfill their goals easily.
3. Speakers/ Performers: Speakers or Performers are also instrumental in driving a lot of attendees to your event. You might even call them the front-end “stars of the show�. However, there is one prominent misconception about event speakers.
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STAKEHOLDERS INVOLVED IN EVENT NETWORKING
Event profs usually believe that speakers attend events only for monetary benefits. While finances constitute one of the factors, it is definitely not the only reason. Each speaker or performer wishes to make their “brand� even more popular and preferred by frequently reaching out to new people. Your events work as one of the platforms for them to do this. That is why, they wish to interact with the attendees apart from their formal session. Interactions with speakers or performers can also be a profitable and interesting way of increasing the audience engagement.
4. Attendees: Attendees are definitely the central focus of event networking. Attendees aim to network with other attendees of your event who might be the professionals from their industry. They also wish to network with the traders, speakers and other people who might be a part of your event. As an event prof, you also need to understand that the networking goals of the attendees are anything but uniform. They might just wish to know other people from their industry, they might wish to learn something better from the speakers or the performs, they might want to look for potential business associates or they might simply wish to increase their contacts. Whatever be their motives, you need to ensure that your attendees get the required platform for interacting and networking with their fellow attendees and all the other event stakeholders.
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STAKEHOLDERS INVOLVED IN EVENT NETWORKING
5. Organisers: An event organizer has various motives of hosting the event. They might have certain goals and ambitions in their mind that they plan to fulfill with the event. Whatever they might be, it is essential for organisers as well to network. They need to interact with all the other stakeholders of the event in order to fulfill their individual goals. That is why, whenever you are working on the networking tools of your event, always make sure to include them as a crucial stakeholder. These were the general categories in which you can usually classify your event networking stakeholders. Networking is a crucial aspect of your event which is usually the focus and goal of almost all of the stakeholders of your event. Make sure to come up with something that would help them all. One way to do that is using event technology. It is one of the most popular way of facilitating efficient event networking, fulfilling the requirements of all the stakeholders involved. In the upcoming chapters, we shall discuss various tech-tools that event planners opt for in order to optimize networking at events.
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3 THE INS & OUTS OF EVENT NETWORKING PLATFORM “Networking is not about collecting contacts. Networking is about planting relations.� People attend events for all sorts of multiple purposes. From generating leads to collecting funds, each event has its own agenda. So do the people who attend such events. Personally, I like to interact with and meet new people whenever I go to an event. That stack of business cards received along with the new connections gained across Social Media platforms always give me a sense of satisfaction in terms of making the most out of the event I just attended. Social contacts are one of my favourite take-aways from an event. Some people attend events for the sake of getting new experiences while others attend such events for getting to know more about a particular industry and get more contacts. Networking is one of the major reasons for which people sign-up for and attends an event.
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THE INS & OUTS OF EVENT NETWORKING PLATFORM
What exactly is the purpose of networking? Dictionary defines networking as
“Interaction with others to exchange information and develop professional or social contacts.”
So, what exact purpose do these ‘contacts’ serve? Be it any business or profession, networking is key to growth and development. Affiliating with people in the same field with you will lead to more opportunities. It will also pave way for exchange of ideas and knowledge along with fruitful collaborations. An event is a gathering of people from all facets of life. Hence, it makes up for a perfect place to network and meet more people. Attendees at an event interact with fellow professionals and build contacts for mutual benefits. Initially, this was done through offline platforms. Even today, certain events are organized solely for networking purposes.
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THE INS & OUTS OF EVENT NETWORKING PLATFORM
With the evolution of technology, the events industry has seen some major technological innovations. A direct effect of this is a major shift from offline to online platforms for carrying out major tasks related to event planning such as registrations, feedback, etc. Event website and event app are some of the most important event tech trends that have taken over the industry. Seeing the increasing rate of event website and event app adoption, developers of such SaaS products have taken to integrating the networking aspect with such online platforms as well. This has led to the rise of the Event Networking Platform.
The Networking Platform: So, what exactly is a networking platform? It is an online platform designed for registered attendees of an event. It is a platform where attendees can connect and interact with each other prior, during and even after the event.
Think about it, isn’t it better to explore the event community virtually before you attend the event? Connect with fellow attendees, have a chat with them, share information and interact. It makes it much easier and much more efficient to network at an event, saving up your time.
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THE INS & OUTS OF EVENT NETWORKING PLATFORM
The nitty-gritty of the Networking Platform: The attendees can chat with each other, find fellow attendees with similar profession or interests and interact. Social media for that one event, if you will. But, it is far more professional and efficient. There are various kinds of networking platforms in the market. Some distribute stand alone networking platforms event organizers can use for one particular event. Networking platforms have taken event networking to a whole new level. With a plethora of features, such platforms can aid event attendees net’work’ their way through the event. Some of the features of networking platforms currently existing in the market are:
1. Chatting: Integrating chat-bots with networking platforms makes it easier for the attendees to have one-one conversations online. People can talk, chat and discuss ideas and proposals prior to the event. It also makes it easier for people to get to know each other and to decide whether or not the person on the other end of the conversation is a fruitful contact to build upon. Only after the conversation can people decide whether or not a face-to-face meeting is required.
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2. Engagement: Engagement is one of the key features in a networking platform. Apart from its obvious benefits, engagement is one way to increase your networking platform adoption. One way to engage the attendees is by sending out scheduled push notifications. Gamification is another way to reel in the attendees. Networking games integrated with the platform will surely interest and engage the attendees and also help break the ice.
3. Correct B2B matchmaking: An event will have all sorts of attendees from different domains and with different purposes. One thing that makes such networking platform convenient is accurate matchmaking. Be it investors looking for entrepreneurs or clients looking for vendors, a good networking platforms can help filter relevant attendees and sort them accordingly.
4. One-on-one meetings: According to Hubspot, 95% say face-to-face meetings are essential for long-term business relationships. It is necessary to arrange face-toface meetings for the attendees despite the chatbot feature. Networking platforms facilitate scheduling one on one meeting and develops a schedule based on the same. THE HANDY GUIDE TO CASHING IN THE CURRENCY OF NETWORKING
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5. Maintaining schedule: Attendees might interact with quite a few fellow attendees. They would want to set up meetings while simultaneously managing sessions that they would like to attend. A networking platform that allows the attendees to maintain a track of the meetings that they have set up and sessions that they would want to attend is really beneficial and convenient. Adding a ‘reminder’ feature is an added bonus.
6. Content Sharing: Some Networking platforms also facilitated content sharing through an Event feed features. Attendees can share usefull articles, photos and videos with the community. This helps in collective knowledge sharing throughout the event.
7. Discussion forums/Polls: The true measurement of audience engagement is the amount of input gained from the attendees. One of the purposes of networking too is to gain inputs and ideas from fellow attendees in order to increase knowledge.
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THE INS & OUTS OF EVENT NETWORKING PLATFORM
Networking platforms have discussion forums and polling features whereby attendees can share their opinion on a particular topic, a session or a speaker.
8. Community building: Community feature in a networking platform has multiple benefits. It makes it really easy to find people in the similar field as yours and connect with them. People can post, comment, like just like in any social media group. These posts can also be moderated. Thus community building facilitates relevant and simpler networking. An event networking platform is a boon to event organizers that has a lot of benefits. As technology develops, new updates are introduced. Some networking platforms even integrate virtual assistance to further the convenience of the attendees, guiding them in terms of whom to approach, which stalls to visit, etc. This is just the beginning. Networking platforms are constantly evolving and developing, helping the organizers to optimize their event and take it to a whole new level. You know the what’s and how’s, learn why an event networking platform is a worthy investment in the upcoming chapter.
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4 HOW TECHNOLOGY IS HELPING IN SETTING ‘BUSINESS DATES’? Technology often gets a bad reputation for limiting our face-to-face human interaction. However, more and more attendees thrive to build new connections at events, we see that technology has actually helped in enhancing the communication with others. With the advent of technology in our daily lives, the line between physical and virtual communication is getting blurred. While this doesn’t simply mean that you keep yourself glued to your smartphone. There are many tools at your disposal that you can use to expand your networks and add to your experience. Here’s how technology is shaping the future of networking at events.
1. Connecting Attendees through the Networking Platform Many of us aren’t skilled when it comes to networking. Walking into a huge event can be massively intimidating. To whom you should approach? Where do you meet people? How do you connect with the speakers whom you’ve been following on Twitter since 4 years?
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HOW TECHNOLOGY IS HELPING IN SETTING ‘BUSINESS DATES’?
Event technology is the solution to such issues and answers to all the problems that attendees face during networking. With the excess of information available on seminars, shows and speakers available at a single touch, mobile, in particular, can help people aware about the events from the areas of their interest. And where like minded connections gather, connections are bound to happen. Large-scale events can be a difficult place to form concrete connections, but a networking platform can help you get past the initial hurdles and awkward introduction stage. Through a networking platform, attendees are empowered to know other attendees even before they enter the event. You can set up basic introductory information including interests and professional background. This makes it easier for people to form a personal connection when they finally meet. And when you build personalized connections, there are greater chances you’ll want to do business with them.
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HOW TECHNOLOGY IS HELPING IN SETTING ‘BUSINESS DATES’?
2. Fostering Discussion & Participation Meeting people is step one, but engaging with those like-minded people is going to add another level of value to the event experience. Networking platforms provide a simpler, more intuitive way of making this happen. Whether through real-time polling, Q&As, or discussion boards, it can provide a road for your attendees to make their voice heard and get feedback on their ideas. One of the hottest technology this year is iBeacons, a proximity detection technology has been transforming events by triggering location-specific prompts for interaction. Attendees are actually encouraged by this technology to “Join the Conversation” when they enter the specific part of the venue. Networking platforms enable them to have access to other attendees’ profiles and are able to send messages directly within the app, eliminating the often intimidating task of approaching strangers at an event.
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HOW TECHNOLOGY IS HELPING IN SETTING ‘BUSINESS DATES’?
3. Inspiring the Most Relevant Connections It is equally critical for a networking platform to set up right kind of people apart from making them join the conversation. With deeper personalization and the use of in-app recommendations, event technology can help attendees connect with those who are most likely to make that happen. Let’s take the example of the Vibrant Gujarat Global Summit to understand this concept better. Organizers of Gandhinagar based Vibrant Gujarat Summit 2017 event wanted to facilitate the above discussed process of building a robust networking scene. Organizers with the help of Hubilo created a specifically customized networking platform integrated with their event app along with a virtual assistant which not only matched people’s requests and offers for knowledge but also helped in scheduling “business dates” at events. You can have a list of names and titles of other people at the event, but it’s difficult to do the actual business with a good number of people from the international market. This is where we got involved. Our mission was to help attendees in breaking the ice and facilitate a common platform to not only network and do business but also plant lifelong relations.”
Mayank Aggarwal
CTO and Co-Founder of Hubilo
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Hubilo offered the matchmaking service as a part of its in-built event app networking platform, which also included advanced features like event info, speakers, schedule, agenda, sponsors, meetings, venue, polls, discussions, social activity stream, exhibitors and so on. Working with Hubilo, organizers were able to send emails to attendees explaining the matchmaking process and inviting them to create their respective profiles indicating people from specific areas they are looking for or have to offer. Attendees can then browse these offers and requests and send invitations to meet people at the event. Vibrant Gujarat Summit, the international business summit conceived by Gujarat Government, experienced the spike in networking with Hubilo’s Event App with thousands of attendees scheduling one-to-one meetings. Networking platform is one of the highest-ranked elements of Hubilo’s Event App, and when we talk to people we always hear, ‘Your networking platform is so great, What makes this networking platform so special is… the algorithm that is far more advanced than anything else we’ve managed to find. - Representative of IndexTB To complement the online matchmaking, Hubilo provides staff at each event who create a dedicated space so people know where to come for their ‘business dates’ and to assist attendees in making connections.
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HOW TECHNOLOGY IS HELPING IN SETTING ‘BUSINESS DATES’?
We find that it’s an interesting and relevant networking tool for our attendees because it creates serendipitous meetings between people who may not otherwise cross paths, but obviously have a lot to learn and offer mutually, - Representative of IndexTB Hence, a networking platform is one of the best ways to optimize networking at your event and give your attendees a fruitful and memorable event experience. You know the what’s and how’s, learn why an event networking platform is a worthy investment in the upcoming chapter.
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5 WHY EVENT NETWORKING PLATFORM IS AN EXCELLENT INVESTMENT? In a recent survey done by Event Manager’s Blog, it surfaced that 22.5 per cent of Event Planners are not using technology at all. That might come as a shock since we live in such an updated world, but unfortunately, that’s true. Most of the event planners when asked about what sort of event technologies they have incorporated in their events, replied saying “big flat screens” or “power point projectors.” Those things are obviously important but they are just the tip of the techberg we are talking about. Also, many event planners shy away or are uninterested when it comes to using event technology which is either due to lack of knowledge or ignorance. Due to this, they miss out on important opportunities. And hence, it makes their event a dull and mundane experience. In a recent article, we talked about 8 technologies that every organizer must embrace. And today we are going to discuss about one of them: event networking platform. Since networking is one of the core reasons why people attend events, it has emerged as a tool which increases the value of your event exponentially.
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WHY EVENT NETWORKING PLATFORM IS AN EXCELLENT INVESTMENT?
Two most common problems faced by attendees at an event: 1. Most of the time, there are so many people at an event that attendees don’t know where to start and whom to approach. And hence, end up making no connections at all. 2. Attending an event is like a fortune cookie. Nobody knows who all are going to be present at an event and whether or not would they be of same interest.
What is an event networking platform? It is an online platform exclusively for registered attendees. In other words, it is an independent social network of your event where people can discover each other, interact, set up meetings, share their experiences and much more.
Why should you invest in an event networking platform? Are you are still confused whether to invest in this event tech tool or not? We have some pretty strong reasons why you should. Check them out!
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WHY EVENT NETWORKING PLATFORM IS AN EXCELLENT INVESTMENT?
Benefits from Attendee’s perspective: 1. Get to know the “correct” people. How many of your attendees actually know about the background of the people attending your event? Not anyone apart from their friends, isn’t it? This is when networking platform comes into the picture as it helps in discovering new people. It does not only let people connect during the event but before and after the event as well. This serves as a great marketing and engagement tool for the organizers to promote as well as create a buzz around the event, a total win-win situation! With the help of the advanced filters attendees can actually filter people according to their designation, organization, industry, recently added, interests and people who viewed their profile. Sounds like a matchmaking process, doesn’t it? It does. The advance algorithm suggests every attendee profiles they should be connecting with and meeting at an event based on their interest and designation.
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WHY EVENT NETWORKING PLATFORM IS AN EXCELLENT INVESTMENT?
2. Break the ice. Isn’t it fascinating that half of the attendees are introverts while most of the meetings are designed for extroverts. Extroverts charge themselves by talking to people while introverts get discharged when they talk to people. And hence, they prefer virtual communication over in-person interaction. Nevertheless, the networking platform helps both the introverts and extroverts break the ice by connecting with people first virtually. They can introduce themselves without any fear or timidity and let fellow attendee know what they have to offer and what they are looking for. This way organizers will be able to know how well their event is performing in terms of return of objective and whether they have attracted the right people or not.
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WHY EVENT NETWORKING PLATFORM IS AN EXCELLENT INVESTMENT?
3. Increase the engagement quotient. Engagement is the key factor which will set your event different from other events. Interactivity is a rising trend in the event industry and more and more emphasis is being given to it from the organizer’s side. Wouldn’t you like to know why and for which part your attendees are excited about? Or may be you want opinions regarding your event venue? This is when discussions and polls come to your rescue. Not just that, all your attendees can also create forums and polls regarding their doubts and queries, ask questions and post pictures. After all, more the information, easier it will be for you to take the perfect decision. Every organizer would like to keep their audience glued and interactive at an event, isn’t it? Well, this is your solution. Enable live engagement during speaker sessions with the help of networking platform. Let people ask their questions and share their opinions directly to the speakers.
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WHY EVENT NETWORKING PLATFORM IS AN EXCELLENT INVESTMENT?
4. Meetings made easy. Wouldn’t it be amazing if your attendees could set up meetings with fellow attendees without much of a hassle? Well, setting up meetings is easier than ever with an event networking platform. Booking meetings with people or texting a message for appointment is just a click away. Help your attendees in finding the right people who they actually want to connect with. Wouldn’t you like if you could set up meetings at a pre-decided time and agenda? Well, that’s how it works otherwise, right! Let your attendees expand their horizon of network. After all, your attendee’s network is their net worth. “By selling your event ticket, you convert an audience into your event attendees but by delivering them a worthwhile experience, you make them your event brand advocates.”
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WHY EVENT NETWORKING PLATFORM IS AN EXCELLENT INVESTMENT?
5. The Ultimate touch point. Most of the organizers don’t know the potential of keeping in touch with their attendees all through the year. Being an event organizer, tell me how often do you interact with your attendees once the event is over? Most of the events that I have attended are dead once they are over. No follow up emails or anything at all. Does this make a good impression and a strong influence on attendees? Obviously not. Hence, keep your attendees glued to your event not only when it is happening but also before and after the event through the event networking platform. Influence your attendees or interact with them and let them know what are you up to or which new event you are coming up with and what you could do better this time. It not only builds the trust but loyalty towards your brand. You want to know how engaging with your audience helps in creating an amazing event experience during the event? Check here.
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WHY EVENT NETWORKING PLATFORM IS AN EXCELLENT INVESTMENT?
Benefits from Organizer’s perspective: Have you ever thought of securing sponsors and attracting more exhibitors by providing them with not just a physical space but a digital one as well? I think you know the answer by now! Let your attendees connect with the sponsors and exhibitors directly by letting them fix meetings and sorting them according to their interest. Secure your sponsors by actually showing them the importance and transparency they will get by connecting with your attendees. Let your exhibitors showcase their product and services. Make the navigation easier by showcasing the event venue layout with stall numbers. Also, leverage Push Notifications. Keep your attendees informed about the live event proceedings during the event. With intuitive event analytics, monitor the engagement at each point to keep up the spark of the event.
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WHY EVENT NETWORKING PLATFORM IS AN EXCELLENT INVESTMENT?
From social media shares, engagement ratio, total reach and impression, event analytics will give you in-depth detail about how your event is performing. And hence, this is the perfect recipe for keeping the event momentum crisp and lively.
What shall be the conclusion? If you don’t provide the technology to let attendees network at your event, they will find the technology and new event to network. Would you like to disappoint your attendees or you would like to give them a wow experience? Choice is yours!
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6 BONUS CHAPTER: UNCONVENTIONAL WAYS TO CONNECT YOUR EVENT ATTENDEES Most of the event planners make sure that their events are ready for networking, but it’s not the same with attendees every time. It might sound easy but it isn’t always easy to get strangers- or even professional colleagues to get along with one another. Ironically, networking is one of the top 5 reasons why people attend business events. And hence, since ages, planners have to try their best to address that interest by hosting cocktail parties or providing networking lounges and what not! But times are changing, indeed. There are newer and more effective ways to foster meaningful connections for your attendees. In this section, we will discuss some fantastic and out-of-the-box ideas which organizers have implemented and you can surely take some inspiration.
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UNCONVENTIONAL WAYS TO CONNECT YOUR EVENT ATTENDEES
1. Share Your Recipe! IMEX, an organization that serves the global meetings, incentive travel, and event industry, took their networking game to the next level. They came up with the concept that love for food is shared by everyone, and therefore a recipe can be a great conversation starter. The organization invited its 6 fellow partners to submit their favorite recipes. All these recipes were showcased on the blog and were available for free public access. It included the contributor’s photo and a quote. The organization also created #IMEXRecipes to receive submissions via Twitter and a dedicated Pinterest page. Smells like a delicious idea? Go ahead with it!
2. Dine With Strangers Back in 2001, Exhibitors Show noticed that many people who came to their show alone were opting to eat dinner in their hotel rooms rather than going out.
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UNCONVENTIONAL WAYS TO CONNECT YOUR EVENT ATTENDEES
Hence, they started offering “Dinner with Strangers.” Organizers make group reservations at about 6 restaurants for each night of the show. You’re wondering how it works? Well, signup sheets at the conference registration desk list the name of the restaurant, type of the food to be served and registration time. Attendees sign up- and they show up! We could never even imagine that wine & dine could be transformed into such a big networking opportunity.
3. Photo Map The Exhibitor Show came up with another amazing idea of ‘Photo Map.’ With the idea to connect people from the same geography, The Exhibitor Group invited attendees to attach their photo to a large map to indicate where they are from. The map was used 10 years ago and participation increases each year, reaching more than 500 photos from 60 countries.
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UNCONVENTIONAL WAYS TO CONNECT YOUR EVENT ATTENDEES
To assist the attendees with photographs, photographers were stationed at the map to take instant thumbnail photos of attendees. Organizers say that the map is an easy conversation-starter as attendees look for others from their area or from cities where they have lived in the past. Put up a big map and give a networking ground to your attendees!
4. Destination Networking The 2013 World Mobile Congress held in Barcelona surprised around 70,000 attendees with 8 new venues created especially to facilitate networking. The “Networking Gardens” were created a Fira Gran Via, a large convention center within the event location itself. To make it simpler for attendees to designate a meeting place, each garden was given a separate name and decor like Mediterranean, Water, Wod, etc. Each one of the gardens had a specific signage which was used throughout event branding. All these gardens were outdoors with special arrangements to tackle unpleasant weather so that networking doesn’t get affected. The first night of the conference witnessed a cocktail reception for attendees hosted by organizers as an introduction to their new networking concept. Indeed a fresh idea. What do you say?
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UNCONVENTIONAL WAYS TO CONNECT YOUR EVENT ATTENDEES
5. Social Media Contests Metropolitan Events & Production Company used the budding use of Social Media for creating a networking campaign for the Makeup Shows in Chicago and Orlando. Organizers asked attendees to upload their pictures with their name, which could be posted, with the #EventHashtag on Twitter, Instagram, Tumblr & Facebook. The concept behind this unique concept was to create a sense of community and provide face recognition as people stepped onto the show floor. Organizers sorted the pictures and shared them as well on the show’s social media networks. For the Orlando Show, they turned this practice into a contest by adding a gift bag as a winning prize. Sounds fun? Don’t forget to incorporate it into your next event?
6. Social Networking Apps It’s a smart world and who doesn’t have a smart phone? Everyone, right? So, why not make the smart use of it?
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UNCONVENTIONAL WAYS TO CONNECT YOUR EVENT ATTENDEES
Social Networking Apps is one of the hottest trends in the event industry. Event Networking Apps like Hubilo and many others, allow attendees to use their phone and tablets to find each other, schedule meeting and many other things. Most of the apps ask users to sign in using their LinkedIn account, so the systems can classify people and match them up with people of similar interest. Additional features of these apps are more than you can imagine. To know more about them, hold on, we’ve an entire section dedicated to it.
7. Post a Picture At I.B.M Connect in January, the company created a Twitter photo contest to encourage event attendees to interact with its “I.B.M Champions,” a group of about 75 bloggers, clients, analysts and business partner. This group is highly active on social media and people were willing to share their genuine experiences regarding the company products.
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UNCONVENTIONAL WAYS TO CONNECT YOUR EVENT ATTENDEES
The conference welcomed them with a packet sized yearbook-style page of photos of the I.B.M Champions who were at the event. All the attendees were asked to take a picture with any of them and post it on Twitter using the #IMBChamp to enter the competition. The Champion who has the most pictures tweeted was also rewarded with the prize. Organizers met with the Champions before the conference to give them an in-depth understanding of the concept, so that they could reinforce key concepts as they interacted with attendees. Looks like your attendees can have a lot of fun using this concept.
8. Digital Business Cards Exchange of business cards is obviously an integral part of the networking but how about we make it paperless? I ain’t kidding. Have you not yet heard about Poken? Well, it is that technology that has revolutionized the traditional manners in which the exchange of information is done. Poken is a tiny device which comes in various sizes and forms including panda bear, a ninja, bumble bee and many more. But you must be wondering how it works actually?
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UNCONVENTIONAL WAYS TO CONNECT YOUR EVENT ATTENDEES
Well, it is based on the technology of near-field communication and hence a simple tapping of two Pokens exchanges the information stored on them, such as contact details, social media handles, profession, website, hobbies, etc. Once the event is over, attendees can plug it into their computer’s USB port to see all the people and information collected. These days, it’s even easier to integrate the e-cards feature directly with your event app rather than going for a separate tool to do that. Take the GES 2017 event app for example that had the ‘v-cards’ feature integrated within. It makes it really easy and convenient for the attendees.
9. Group/Community Based Activities At the Clean the World in Orlando, more than 100 attendees from the Professional Convention Management Association’s Convening Leaders Conference assembled hygiene kits. These kits were later given as a charity to a local homeless shelter. Charity Services such as this facilitates an opportunity for event attendees to work together towards a common goal. For events of a larger scale, planners can offer multiple choices to the attendees from which they can choose one at the time of registration. You can seek the help from a local government body to find out information about the organizations that are in looking for any assistance.
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UNCONVENTIONAL WAYS TO CONNECT YOUR EVENT ATTENDEES
10. Scavenger Hunts Mashable, a global multi-platform media, and entertainment company hosts a two-day conference each spring at Walt Disney World. This event includes about 300+ senior-level executives, managers and head of departments, marketers, tech enthusiasts and entrepreneurs, ends with a social media based scavenger hunt. Attendees were grouped in a team of 5 and they have to work to identify things inside the designated place based on a set of clues and then post they were asked to post the picture of their findings on Instagram with hashtag #Mashcon. Thus now and again, planners get creative in order to facilitate effective networking at events in order to maximize attendee ROI. After all, Attendee ROI=Event ROI.
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR Jay Sitapara is an engineer having an inclination towards innovation in technology. Currently, associated with Hubilo, an event-tech startup which aims to change the way how events are organised and people network at events. Jay is particularly passionate about crafting stimulating, resourceful and in-depth guides for Event Planners to keep them updated and acknowledged about latest event industry trends. He is speciďŹ cally interested in effective use of event technology and social media for greater ROI through innovative thinking and skills. Jay is also a Digital Marketer, Editor, Community Manager and a regular contributor to Hubilo Blog. His philic nature is prone to dogs, poetry, coffee, friends and coffee with friends. If you’re on Twitter, say Hello to him @jsitapara and follow his articles on blog.hubilo.com. And Jay says, do not forget to share this Ebook!
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR Hemani Sheth is a Mass Communication major and an event enthusiast. She is currently associated with Hubilo, a cloud based event management platform that aims to help event professionals create exceptional events Hemani strives to create resourceful guides that pave way for insightful discussion built around various facets of the event industry. She has a keen interest in event technology and how multiple innovations in the ďŹ eld can help transform the way events are created, marketed and executed. Hemani is also a content marketer and a key contributor to Hubilo Blog. Go check out more of her handy articles on blog.hubilo.com. An avid reader, traveller and a movie buff, she is open to conversations on any topic under the sun! Go ahead, say hello to her on twitter @HimaniSheth.
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR Hiteshree Dudani is an event tech enthusiast who has successfully organised many eminent events. The list includes charity events, youth fests, seminars, workshops and a lot more. She is currently associated with the event technology company Hubilo. She is one of the key contributors to the Hubilo Blog. She strives to create a wide range of useful content for event planners, event techies and event marketers. A dog lover and an avid reader, she is currently pursuing her love of literature an psychology. Go say hello to her on twitter @hiteshreed31.
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With a vision of building a one-stop solution for any type of event - may it be a conference, a seminar, a workshop or an off-site event, Hubilo helps you in executing a dynamically interactive event by setting up the entire online management suit required for the event within a few minutes Say goodbye to the mundane task of doing things manually and allow the event management software to do it an easier and much more efďŹ cient way. Automate the whole process and get your event powered by Hubilo The value addition that Hubilo offers is equivalent to the services offered by 7 vendors, making it a perfect recipe for successful event planning. From event creation, event promotion, event engagement to analytics, we techcare of all your event-tech worries.
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