For some time now, every major survey of the world of corporate and professional events has told us that, alongside content that updates knowledge and skills, people attend in the hope of enriching their own network of contacts and relationships. The aims can vary widely, from advancing a career to finding people “of value” who improve the quality of their working life but, whatever the case, networking is one of the activities on which event attendees pin the greatest expectations.
That is why it is becoming ever more important, for those who organise events, to pay particular attention to the occasions that make this “networking activity” easier and to provide tools and opportunities for carrying it out more effectively and efficiently, taking dispositions and temperaments into account as well, so as to include the shyer, more introverted people too.
Beyond the experience and the skill that every event organiser has necessarily developed after some time in the field, are there tools and techniques that can help build this intricate structure? We think there are, and here are a few.
1. Unleash the power of organised networking
Start by asking yourself a question: what conditions can encourage a networking system to take shape? One of them is certainly the presence of spaces or moments specifically devoted to this activity within agendas that are otherwise far too full in the economy of any business event. And then there are the great classics: how well have coffee breaks always worked as moments of gathering and socialising?
Put these two factors together and you have the first suggestion for creating conditions that make networking easier: build targeted networking sessions into the event, such as round tables or “speed networking” slots (like speed dating, but without the romantic side), so that making connections has a formal place in people’s agendas and they can devote themselves to it fully.
Bear in mind that these activities do not even need a physical space: thanks to technology, if you wish, you can create virtual spaces every bit as attractive and functional as physical ones, which in some cases are far more expensive and demanding to organise.
2. Use apps
Until not long ago, event apps looked like the cure for every ill in the event world, as though simply having one was enough to guarantee the success of any initiative. Then, rather as happens with fashions, their popularity suddenly faded, to the point where they almost disappeared from view. In doing so, though, we risked throwing the baby out with the bathwater. Event apps were never a solution in themselves; they were a tool. For them to work — and not necessarily at every event — they always had to be filled with content, to be the expression of a project, to have, in short, a real role in the economy of an event. Otherwise they became a gadget, and a distinctly more expensive one than a keyring.
One of the situations where a well-designed app really can become a strategic asset is precisely the one that has to do with networking, and in a fairly simple and relatively inexpensive way. How? Imagine having every attendee create a profile in the app before the event even begins, complete with a personal page, an introduction, attachments and documents (the only real limits here are the imagination and
the context you are working in). In other words, let each person build a personal showcase with the “best possible image of themselves” and share it, getting past the awkwardness of face-to-face contact, the shyness, the fumbling.
Or imagine that each person could, again in their own personal area, indicate interests, expertise and preferences and so be matched with — or receive suggestions about — other people they might be particularly compatible with, or interested in connecting with, in a “matchmaking” service that is more discreet and more efficient than anything that could ever be done in person.
3. Break down barriers through play
One of the strongest barriers to building networks and relationships often has to do with company roles, even when working across them would be extremely fruitful and useful to the aims of many — if not all — of the people involved. In these cases, one of the best strategies available is to take people out of their role and bring them all onto neutral ground, where the differences are between people rather than between job titles or positions in the company. Play, gaming and the activity that brings them to life, namely gamification, are essential tools for achieving this. Getting different people to play the same game — ideally one far removed from work or professional life, and better still a team game, where you have to collaborate shoulder to shoulder to get a result regardless of your place on the org chart — can be one of the best ways to break down rigidity and barriers, to make connections possible that otherwise would not be and, why not, to lay the groundwork for processes that are highly creative and innovative.
To close this brief — and certainly not exhaustive — survey, we could say that, if in an increasingly connected world effective networking is a crucial skill for professional success, it is more and more also a key resource for the success of the events organised at corporate and business level. And if on the one hand this poses further challenges to event professionals, it also lets them find in technology important allies for bringing home results worth having, allies able above all to take account of differing needs, sensitivities and constraints, and so to let experience design — the heart of every event, as we shall never tire of repeating — take centre stage.