Prioritizing communication and fostering virtual team-building activities support the employee well-being and helps to reaffirm the company’s values and mission in the face of a changing workforce environment.  Flexibility, empathy, and a focus on maintaining a sense of community are key to mitigating the detrimental effects of the pandemic on corporate culture.  Utilizing new methods of virtual face to face engagement like speed networking sessions as a part of a regular leadership cadence are helping Employee Resource Groups to foster a sense of belonging among employees.   

With the sudden shift to remote work for many companies, maintaining a strong sense of corporate culture has become more challenging. Remote work can lead to feelings of isolation and disconnection among employees, hindering collaboration and communication.  By implementing speed networking sessions that create 6 to 8 face-to-face interactions in an hour at a very low cost, the company increases the ability for employees to build relationships and foster a sense of belonging within an organization.

For more information on how SpeedNetworking.com is enhancing the ability of corporations to connect, please visit:     

Case Studies

The post Corporations Enhance Workforce Culture with Virtual SpeedNetworking.com appeared first on Speed Networking.

• Matchmaking: Attendees provide their preferences and goals during registration. Our system leverages a proprietary predictive analytic algorithm that creates a participant’s connections based on shared interests and objectives for connecting.
• Speedy conversations: Participants are paired for brief, focused conversations, typically lasting 5–8 minutes. It’s a fun and efficient way to meet 6 to 8 relevant people in a short time.
• Higher engagement: Participants love the thrill of quick, purposeful interactions that keep them engaged throughout the event.
• Effortless networking: Encourages members to meet more people in less time, expanding their network and opportunities.
• Post-event connections: After the event, participants can continue building relationships with those they connected with by using our post event connection portal.
• Same Platform for both in person and virtual speed networking events: Regardless of the event type, organizers have the capability to ensure participants are matched with new contacts they did not meet in prior events. 
• Experienced Customer Success Manager for each event: An experienced coach helps guide the event organizer every step of the way to help ensure each event’s success and to maximize the efforts of the event organizer. 

A recent survey of association members uncovered a desire for more of these quick hitting networking events to foster meaningful new relationships.    

https://speednetworking.com/big-association-survey-reveals-member-engagement-trends/

Our 12 years of experience has culminated in a total solution of technology and coaching that is unique in this generation of speed networking solutions.  You and your members deserve the best!

The post Create an Exciting Member Engagement Event appeared first on Speed Networking.

Freeman’s annual gauge of event participants reveals a few differences between attendees of different generations—but many important similarities too.

Rob Carey | Jan 22, 2024

Released in early January, the 2024 Trends Report: Attendee Intent and Behavior from trade-show, exhibit, and event-production agency Freeman addresses the key factors that influence people’s decisions to attend in-person events and their satisfaction with those events.

And while the report, based on responses from nearly 2,100 businesspeople, finds some event-related distinctions between the four generations represented in the work force—Boomers (born before 1965), Gen X (born 1965-1980), Millennial (born 1981-1996), and Gen Z (born 1997-2012)—the commonalities are striking, even as technology related to individual personalization of the business-event experience is quickly advancing.

In fact, technology is centrally related to one commonality, according to the report: “We all want to be seen, accommodated, and valued for our individuality.” That, in essence, is the definition of inclusion, and the leveraging of data can help events get there.”

Some examples of other common preferences among different generations of attendees, according to the survey results:

• With keynote and other general-session presentations, content comes first. “Attendees want substance, not celebrity,” says the report. “A relevant, thought-provoking topic will outweigh even the most prominent name” when it comes to driving attendee interest.

From a wider perspective, the four factors that are most important for driving interest in keynote and general-session presentations: The topic; the type of speaker (industry expertise and experience in innovation are most preferred), the session format (some attendee interaction is most preferred), and the duration (40 to 60 minutes is most preferred). “Striking a balance between informational and inspirational is key” to impactful main-stage presentations, says the report.

• Attendees want business events to offer activities with peer-to-peer interaction, including opportunities for both conversation and hands-on activities. “When it comes to networking, they are less interested in discovering new career opportunities or finding/providing mentoring,” the report says. “Instead, attendees view networking as most valuable when they can exchange ideas with peers regarding their shared challenges, meet new colleagues, and speak with industry experts who might otherwise be out of reach.”

• When it comes to the commercial aspect of business events, “attendees consider samples of products or service as well as hands-on demonstrations—seeing solutions and actions in real-life scenarios—as the most valuable” activities in exhibit and sponsor spaces, says the report.

• Attendees have a clear desire for immersive activations and personalization, but the “low-hanging fruit” of morning yoga sessions, group jogging events, and other wellness initiatives are not moving the needle, according to the report. Instead, focusing event-staff efforts on “business-related immersion and customization opportunities will yield higher returns for attendees and event hosts alike.”

However, there is at least one area where the youngest generation of businesspeople differs from the others: “Next-generation event-goers tend to care more about authentic connection and social causes than other generations,” says the report, “and it is imperative for event organizers to act upon this” in order to maintain an event’s momentum into the future.

The post 4 Takeaways from Big Attendee-Preferences Survey appeared first on Speed Networking.

1. Invite a VIP speaker

At most networking events you’ll get to hear a little from everyone and discover what they do. Transform your networking event into a miniature seminar by adding a short keynote from an industry expert or thought leader.

Think of this as a networking event and webinar hybrid where your guests get the opportunity to network with not only each other, but an industry expert too. It’s an opportunity to take a mini deep dive into a professional’s career journey or the company they run or represent, and it gives attendees a look behind the scenes at their success. Use this keynote to kick off your networking session and give everyone plenty to think about as they get to know others at your live event.

2. Take a mini skills class together

There’s nothing like a shared learning activity to build new connections with the people around you. It gives everyone a shared talking point and is a great way for less confident members of the group to get involved.

At your next networking event, bring in an expert to host a mini skills class for a small group. This could be something creative like a seasonal craft activity, or it could be food-and-drink themed like a mixology or cookie decorating class. You could also keep it work-related and host a lunch and learn based around soft skills like communication, leadership, or sales. Not only does this get people talking, they also get to learn something new in a fun way.

3. Host a virtual happy hour

If making cocktails isn’t your thing but you enjoy a good drink — alcoholic or not — try a virtual happy hour instead. Recreate that face-to-face bar or lounge experience in an online space by getting together for casual conversations and networking over drinks.

Instead of sending drink kits to your guests by mail or asking them to DIY their own, use virtual cards. With a virtual card, guests can use the balance to order drinks from their favorite local bar, restaurant, or coffee shop. It’s a small but fun way to create a hybrid event experience for your guests.

4. Try speed networking with a personal twist

Most people are familiar with the idea of speed networking. You have a few minutes with each guest to introduce yourselves and talk about what you do. Put a fun twist on your speed networking event by making it more about the person and less about their role.

Introduce prompts that encourage people to share their dreams, talk about their personal highlights, and tell others what they get up to on the weekend. Building your professional network isn’t just about connecting with the right name or face. It’s also about finding people you get on with personally — whether they have similar interests or a different outlook on life entirely. This twist on speed networking helps people do that faster. Don’t hesitate to check out www.speednetworking.com

5. Theme your event around a hobby or interest

A lot of virtual networking opportunities are either centered on one industry or open to all but with restrictions on how many people can represent one sector. Take a slightly different approach to networking and theme your event around an interest, hobby, or passion instead.

Invite people to join you for a business-focused networking event where they can learn something new and make connections with like-minded individuals. Gather outdoor sports enthusiasts, avid gamers, foodies, or people who are passionate about mindfulness for a themed meetup. This shared interest means that not only can potential business relationships develop, but personal ones too, which could enhance not just someone’s work life but their social time.

The post 5 Fun Virtual Networking Event Ideas to Love appeared first on Speed Networking.

What’s working when it comes to event planning?

In 2023, the opportunity to revamp and create a fresh experience should be top-of-mind for event coordinators and marketers. Inviting in new ideas, such as fresh takes on delivering educational content and new, interactive formats, can enhance the overall event.

The expectation for marketers is high and, if an event doesn’t match the attendee’s needs, they’re more likely to move on to the next. Below, we’ll discuss the importance of:

• Updating event styles to create a fresh new experience
• How to combine both physical and virtual event styles
• The proper way to budget for events in the current economy

Some unique ideas for conferences and events are:

• Pre-Conference Virtual Networking, which allows conference attendees to get a leg-up on meeting potential contacts prior to the event, saving time, zeroing in on those connections that have a mutual synergy with and breaking the ice prior to the conference event.
• Campfire presentations, which start off with a standalone speaker, who then turns to the audience invite comments, insights, and questions.
• Birds of a Feather, which involves a group of people with a common interest or area of expertise informally working together to discuss and alleviate pain points and challenges.
• Human Spectogram, which involves the presenter asking the group a few questions and then having individuals move to an area of the room to reveal their answers.
• A Solution Room that is designed to provide peer-supported advice on individuals’ problems and usually lasts 90-120 minutes;
• Lightning Talks, which are useful in keeping the audience’s attention while multiple ideas are being presented in a short amount of time; and
• Silent Disco Talks, which allow attendees to switch content tracks easily and quietly by switching to a new station on their headphones.

The post What’s In Store for the Future in Event Planning? appeared first on Speed Networking.

Virtual networking elements at in-person events are table stakes for companies.  In 2023, we will see the influx of virtual elements incorporated into in-person events to satisfy expectations and measure attendee engagement. Companies that fail to incorporate these elements into their event strategies will fall behind in collecting and optimizing attendee insights to better inform their marketing efforts.

According to a recent questionnaire of more than 3,000 respondents declare hybrid events are favored among B2B organizations. Specifically:

• 86% of B2B organizationssaw a positive ROI from their hybrid events seven months after the event date.
• 34% of event organizersexpect to invest more in hybrid events in the next few years.
• 21% of marketerssaid they are procuring a hybrid event platform.
• 57% of respondentssaid they would rather attend an in-person version of a hybrid event than the virtual networking version.
• 25% of respondentsstated they will host between five to 10 hybrid events per year.

Even though the lockdown is over, marketers aren’t throwing away their virtual networking event playbooks and only hosting live events. They learned to meet customers where they are by offering both methods to target and engage audiences.“Virtual networking events have certainly proven their ROI,” said Mike Slater, Founder of Speednetworking.com, the industry’s legacy premium preferred provider of virtual networking events.  As such, event leaders are looking to take the benefits of virtual networking events and translate them into physical ones. For example, attending events where the speaker or panelists are tuning in remotely from around the world, giving in-person attendees opportunity to connect with topic leaders globally. These hybrid events also extend to participants, helping to maximize event attendance and connection.

Marketers must leave behind binary thinking that pits physical and virtual networking against one another.  When it comes to event experiences, marketers must focus on matching personalized content and experiences with individual customers in the format they prefer — whether at a conference center, through a screen or a mix of the two. Moving forward, event strategies will focus on engagement and impact rather than format, reaching attendees where they prefer to interact.

The post Leveraging A Blend of Physical & Virtual Events To Reach Wider Audiences appeared first on Speed Networking.

So what in the world is Predictive Matchmaking and how is it improving the process in which professionals meet at conferences/trade shows, alumni event, user conferences or networking events in general?

Think about your attendees needs and imagine connecting them with the people they are seeking and how that would impact your event and the impact of them returning for future events.

Predictive Match Making offers several unique advantages to traditional networking platforms for event organizers such as:

• Preview how individuals are matched up prior to the meetings taking place.
• Change the parameters on how individuals are to be paired together.
• Review and edit matches to ensure the highest quality of connections
• Furthermore, if they don’t like all or some of the matches…they system can rematch participants based on the organizers direction.

Moreover, event organizers can see how successful their pairings of matches can be with a specialized scoring system….and if you don’t like the scores, redo the matching structure and see the new outcome (and repeat until the right matching parameters are fulfilled)!

And trust us, successful people love structure…and knowing who they are going to meet elevates their interest in participation and increases their overall satisfaction.

The post We’ve Entered the World of Predictive Matchmaking Solutions appeared first on Speed Networking.

1. It’s not Zoom Rooms or Similar!
   Virtual matchmaking solutions are much more comprehensive and offer strategic matching supported by a well-orchestrated process to take attendees through a series of one-to-one private engagement meetings based on pre-defined matching criteria. These solutions save tremendous time on trying to match people up and dealing with the myriad of headaches that can be endured trying to match people together and then place them in a private virtual room.  
2. Solves Inclusion and Diversity Management
   Diversity in the workplace has long since been of paramount importance. Putting aside the social awareness benefit of a great diversity program, the outcomes significantly impact recruitment, retention, innovation, opportunities for new markets, financial outcomes, employee satisfaction and overall corporate culture.
3. Diversifies Attendee Networking Options
   Networking programs are like a financial portfolio; you don’t put all your eggs in one basket and financial professionals strongly encourage diversification. Not all networking programs fit the needs of individuals.  Diversify networking programs ensures opportunities for all types of attendees.  Programs can include buyer/seller, mentoring, leadership training, team building, knowledge sharing, cross department collaboration and much more!
4. Reduce Administrate Time & Stress
   Today’s solutions, such as SpeedNetworking.com, significantly reduce organizers administrative time and reduces stress as the tools today assist with set up, marketing, matching and the engagement of people is an innovative, engaging, and meaningful method.
5. Improve Meeting Quality
   Utilizing match making platforms significantly increases the chances that people meet the right people and helps ensures new smart connections. Additionally, SpeedNetworking.com allows organizers greater control through customization to ensure the best possible matching outcomes. 
6. Increase Attendee Engagement
   Attendees are busy people. When they know there is a solution to help ensure they meet the right people, participation significantly increases as this type of platform provides a greater opportunity of meeting the right people, as such, organizations have seen an increases in participation. 
7. Boost Recruitment / Retention
   Connecting attendees to the right people shows them the organization takes great interest in ensuring matching with the right people is important. In return for the organization’s efforts, attendees show their appreciation in turn by increased loyalty and retaining their relationship and spreading the good word about the organization on to others.  
8. Create New Revenue / Sponsorship Opportunities
   For organizations seeking to increase revenue opportunities, platforms, such as SpeedNetworking.com, offer multiple strategic sponsorship opportunities to maximize their sponsorship dollars and increase the chance for the best ROI.
9. Increase Attendee & Organization ROI
   For the organizers, reduced administrative, production, marketing and sponsorship opportunities supported by increase attendee participation and satisfaction leads to an elevated ROI. Furthermore, with quality reporting, the ROI can be validated to share with other staff and senior leadership.
10. Obtain Real Time & Comprehensive Valuable Data and Analyzing Outcomes
    Identifying a platform that provides smart reporting helps organizers understand the matching needs of their attendees. After reviewing all the data and analytics post an event, organizers can make smarter decisions on how to plan future events as they identify the very specific needs of their attendees.  Additionally, working with a platform that not only delivers the solution but works directly with the organizer to make suggestions for future events….is a no brainer…check out SpeedNetworking.com (we had to end with a plug!!!!)

Interested in learning more about SpeedNetworking.com, we’d love to connect with your.  Please follow “Click Here” to get started to learn how we can help your organization.

The post Top Reasons for Using Virtual Matchmaking appeared first on Speed Networking.

Interested in writing for Speed Networking? Awesome!

Writing for us is a great way to gain exposure and position yourself + your organization as a thought leader in the events industry. Simply submit a post about one of the following topics: event technology, event planning, or networking. 

Guest blogging requirements:

• Blogs must be 750+ words in length.
• Each blog may include relevant links and should cite any sources used.
• Blogs should not be directly trying to sell a specific product or service, though you may link out to them if they are relevant to post topic.

Each approved post will feature a short author bio, where you are welcome to include contact information about your business or organization.

Minor edits may be made.

If you’re interested, please Contact Us or send your blog draft to blogs@speednetworking.com.

The post Write for us! appeared first on Speed Networking.

Call us crazy, but we are passionate about what we do and believe that everyone should have the ability to host a successful speed networking event (with or without partnering with us). For event planners who choose to produce their own event (although we hope you consider SpeedNetworking.com), we have created a cheat sheet of critical elements to planning and executing a successful speed networking event. 

This is a partial list of crucial items we discuss with our clients.

If you want a more complete list, download our free Ebook.  

Room Set-up:

Tables:

We recommend classroom-style seating for the best results. This is typically done with 72” x 18” tables and 4 chairs (2 meetings) at each table. We’ve provided a diagram at the end of this post to illustrate an ideal room set-up.

Table #s:

Our events include customized schedules that direct participants to different tables, which means our events require table’s. We strongly recommend putting table #’s out, even if you aren’t using customized schedules. It makes the event more manageable and you can help direct people more easily with table numbers as guides. We encourage the use of 12” table number stands as well.

The speed networking event is going to produce a lot of energy and body heat. If you are in a room or designated area, try to make the room cooler than normal at the start of the event. It may feel chilly at first but as the event gets going, the room temperature (and the conversations!) will start to warm up.

Water:

This is possibly the single most important item to have at the event but is oftentimes overlooked. If you can, put multiple water stations around the room for participants to fill up glasses. This typically works better than providing bottles of water ahead of time, as participants often leave these at tables and/or spend time filling up the entire bottle in between rounds.

Audio:

For simplicity, we recommend only having a wireless microphone for the event facilitator (with speakers, of course). This enables you to walk around the room and manage the event while on the move.

Video:

We discourage our partners from incorporating any sort of video/screen at the event. A timer on a video board tends to take away from the event, as participants are more focused on the timer than the conversations. It also gives you more control over the event when you can manage the timing. If you need to extend a round by 60-seconds or cut a round short by 30-seconds, you can do this on the fly without anyone noticing.

Event Check-In:

Pre-Registered:

Our schedules are arranged in alphabetical order by last name, which allows us to easily find individual schedules when they arrive at the event. If you aren’t using schedules, print off the names of everyone attending the event (make a few copies) so that you can track who has arrived and who has not. This Event Video also helps act as a guide.

Info Sheet:

In an effort to expedite the check-in process, we hand out a 1-page information sheet to each participant that explains how the event will work. This is important if you have a first-time event, as it will answer a lot of questions for participants and allow you to focus on running the event.

Mingle:

Participants will arrive at different times (typically over a 15-minute time window) and during this time we encourage everyone to mingle with those around them. After all, it is a networking event! Let them know that this is a “bonus round” of networking before the event starts.

Moderating:

Control:

As the moderator, it is critical that you maintain control and set the tone for the event. Once everyone has arrived and you’re ready to begin, it’s important to provide clear instructions/announcements about the event. Give an overview of the structure of the event, objectives (peer-to-peer, mentoring, buyer/seller, etc.), how to maximize the conversations, and what to expect from participating. Try and limit the instructions to 10-minutes.

Commands: 

One critical element to the success of your event is maintaining control, and as silly as some of the commands below may seem…..you’ll be amazed at how well people appreciate structure.

Begin Round x:

This signals that the round has begun.

Half Way:

Inform participants that they are halfway through a particular round. This gives them an idea of how much time is left and it also is a signal to allow the other person to have a chance to talk.

30 Seconds Left:

Let participants know that the round is coming to an end. They should finish their conversations and exchange contact information to connect after the event.

Rotate:

As you can guess, this signals participants to move to the next round.

Rotation Notes:

Reminder participants to take their personal belongings with them and quickly move to their next meeting. If you are timing the rotations, let them know when they have 30 seconds and 15 seconds left to finish rotating.

Wrap-Up: 

Upon completing the event, it is important to provide wrap up announcements. You should remind your participants to follow-up with their new connections to continue building the relationships. Always discourage them from sending a blanket email to everyone and instead, write a personal note to each of the new connections. We encourage you to host additional networking after the event to allow participants to continue their discussions or meet with others that they did not meet during the event.

If you are not up to the task of running your own event or you simply want to elevate the networking experience for you and your attendees, we would love to talk to you.

Give us a call for a free consultation or schedule a demo to learn more.

The post How to Run a Speed Networking Event appeared first on Speed Networking.