You know networking is important for any event, but it may be an even bigger deal than you realize! In fact, research shows that 75% of attendees consider networking their drive to go to events. This means that, while it’s important to keep your content strong and deliver in other ways, the right networking opportunities can make or break an event and determine whether attendees will come back next year.
Source: https://www.concep.com/content-zone/why-do-people-attend-events/
Of course, networking is about more than just meeting people — it’s about meeting people that attendees can form valuable, lasting relationships with. That’s where we come in! Whova already provides many features to effectively help with attendee networking. Now Whova’s new Matchmaking feature further gives attendees better opportunities by helping them find people they already have things in common with, giving them a headstart on building valuable connections.
Facilitate lasting, deeper connections with intelligent matchmaking
Whova Matchmaking takes attendee’s customized profiles and uses them to create matches based on interests, backgrounds, company affiliations, and much more. Attendees can update their profile to include the information they feel is most relevant, search other attendees based on these factors, and reach out with messages, meet-ups, and 1-1 video calls.
Attendees can search for others with similar interests, find people who work at the same company as them or went to the same school, search by attendee categories, and more.
This way, they don’t have to move through vague small talk just to find something in common — not only do these connections have the basis to be smarter and stronger, but they also give them a starting place that makes it significantly easier to break the ice and get to know each other.
Increase ROI for attendees and exhibitors alike
Event matchmaking is for more than just attendee networking, too; it can also lead to new benefits and increased ROI for exhibitors. We previously discussed the tools to increase exhibitor ROI. Now, depending on their company and product, exhibitors can use matchmaking features to find attendees with relevant interests or jobs and reach out to potential leads who may be interested in their company.
Likewise, attendees can also search by attendee category to specifically find exhibitors or speakers so they can reach out to experts and professionals in a field they may be interested in. Overall, exhibitors can find smarter, higher-quality leads and leave the event with higher ROI than ever.
No more missed connections — conveniently bookmark attendee profiles
Once attendees have found someone they’d like to get to know better, taking the next steps is easy. If they want to learn more about the attendee, they just have to click View Profile to get more information and see the full picture. Even if they don’t feel like chatting right away, they can also make sure they don’t lose track of interesting attendees by bookmarking their profile for later.
Easily break the ice and say hi with just a click!
When attendees are ready to reach out and start talking, they can conveniently send a message directly from the matchmaking feature with just a click! They can say hi, ask about something they have in common, or if they want to chat through another feature before sending a private message, even find the other attendee on Whova’s Icebreaker feature to comment on their post and start a conversation about that!
Attendees can also use these categories to suggest both in-person and virtual meet-ups. For instance, attendees might decide to arrange an alumni meet-up with others they were matched with from their university, or schedule morning yoga with attendees who listed that as an interest! When suggesting meet-ups, they can quickly invite recommended groups or add attendees one by one.
Reduce the work in networking with SmartProfiles
While filling out profiles doesn’t take long, it’s not a particularly exciting task, meaning many attendees might end up leaving theirs blank. To help get the ball rolling, Whova’s SmartProfiles can help them automatically fill in information based on registration. If they feel like changing anything or adding more in-depth information, they can always return to edit or add more, like listing their interests!
Bring networking at your event to the next level
Networking is a critical part of any event, so you want to make sure your attendees have the best opportunities to meet others they can have lasting business relationships with.
If you want to learn more about Whova Matchmaking, or our number of other networking features, like icebreakers or speed networking, just sign up today for a free product demo!
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