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Social
Networking
One of
the best parts of attending a meeting or event
can be meeting other people, collaborating with
colleagues and learning from others. During
events, planners are always trying to facilitate
these meetings – meet and greet receptions,
cocktail hours and round table discussions are
just a few ways that we try to get attendees to
connect with one another. But what about after
the event, or even before? There are some easy
ways that you can connect attendees to one
another before the conference and long after
they have left.
It’s All About Information
If you don’t know anything about your attendees,
it will be nearly impossible to connect them
with others that have the same interests. So
begin to gather information about them as early
as possible. If your attendees pre-register for
sessions, you will have a wealth of information
about their interests. If this is not something
that you do, simply adding a few questions to
the registration form such as “Which areas of
this meeting are you most interested in?” will
be enough to begin to connect people.
Software Packages
The most powerful social networking tools are
relationship-building software packages that
utilize a secure environment to help attendees,
exhibitors and speakers connect. After
registering, each individual has the opportunity
to fill out a profile that details their goals
for the conference and their interests – they
can reveal as much or as little information
about themselves as they want. The system then
sends notices to attendees of others that have
similar interests and goals or an attendee and
search for people to connect with.
Other Options
Not ready to take the jump into the
relationship-building software? There are still
ways that you can connect attendees using the
basic information that you collected during the
registration process. This can easily be
accomplished by setting up an online forum and
posting different session or speaker topics. You
can then send personalized e-mail to attendees
with links to the topics they showed interest
in.
Not
sure how to set up an online forum? Two easy
ways to do this are by either a conference blog
or wiki. As discussed in our June newsletter
article, Blogs!?! What’s all the excitement
about?, blogs are the next generation of online
discussion forums. A conference blog offers a
central location for interested parties to post
messages that become on-going, online
conversations on many different topics.
Individual discussion threads can be categorized
by topic and date. Blog topics can parallel
meeting development activities such as venue
selection, conference schedule, general session
speakers as well as breakout session topics.
A wiki
is a type of website that allows its users to
easily add, remove and edit content. A single
topic, such as a session topic or a broader
issue can be posted on a page and users can add
their own thoughts, information and research. To
view an example of a wiki, visit the world’s
largest wiki:
http://en.wikipedia.org
The
Goal
Keep in mind that the goal behind social
networking is to improve and extend
participant’s conference experience. Meetings
and events both big and small and of all types
can benefit from social networking.
Need help planning your next meeting or event? Contact
Designing Events at
info@designingevents.com or
866-867-193
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