Event tech is heralding a new era of intelligent connections.
Welcome to #Issue 2 of our Super Connectors series.
The first issue explored the event formats that drive better networking. This time we focus on how smart event technology can produce more precise and valuable networking.
Where previously networking relied in large part on who you bumped into, today it’s possible to identify and arrange your most valuable connections.
Web Summit, for example, attributes its phenomenal growth to its ability to engineer serendipity, building a recommendation engine within its app that adds incredible value to the audience experience.
Today there’s a wide choice of networking technologies that can create a more intelligent attendee experience.
However, all of these technologies need to be looked at through the lens of human behaviour – a networking app is only as good as the interactions and information fed into it.
ISSUE #2
TECHNOLOGY
Here are five event technologies that are transforming the way audiences can interact with each other.
Event Match Making Apps
Helping people to discover and make intelligent connections
There’s a wide choice of event apps that match people based on delegate self-categorisation.
Attendees create a profile, often through a questionnaire, that includes information on their areas of expertise and what they hope to learn. They then receive a list of people they’re matched with and the option to set up a meeting.
The question to answer before adopting this route is how you’ll persuade the audience to self-categorise in enough detail to spark useful recommendations?
Clearly event communications and format can all help, but ultimately your audience needs the personal motivation to self-categorise.
Techs to checkout:
E180| Brella | Grip
Is it right for your event?
Works well if you have a large audience genuinely motivated to connect with others
Event Match Making Apps
Helping people to discover and make intelligent connections
There’s a wide choice of event apps that match people based on delegate self-categorisation.
Attendees create a profile, often through a questionnaire, that includes information on their areas of expertise and what they hope to learn. They then receive a list of people they’re matched with and the option to set up a meeting.
The question to answer before adopting this route is how you’ll persuade the audience to self-categorise in enough detail to spark useful recommendations?
Clearly event communications and format can all help, but ultimately your audience needs the personal motivation to self-categorise.
Techs to checkout:
E180| Brella | Grip
Is it right for your event?
Works well if you have a large audience genuinely motivated to connect with others
Proximity Solutions
Allowing location-specific content information to be sent to an audiences ‘mobile device’
This builds a further layer of intelligence; people’s smart devices alerting them when potentially valuable connections are nearby.
Attendees view the profiles and indicate who they’d like to connect with. On meeting, contact details are easily exchanged with a digital handshake shake, which might be the touching of devices, the scanning of a QR code or sharing a pin code.
Techs to checkout:
Socio| Hiver
Is it right for your event?
Works well if you have delegates happy to share their location and data
Digital Speed Networking
Bringing together the intelligence of an event dating app with the traditional speed dating format
The audience receive text messages informing them where to go for their networking session and who to meet with. They’re then prompted to meet their next connection. Following the speed networking session people are able to request further meetings with connections they found most valuable.
Arguably, eventising networking within a dedicated digital speed networking session makes participants more likely to engage.
That said, speed networking can alienate certain personality types, so think carefully about your audience profile before adopting this route.
Techs to checkout:
Mixalot
Is it right for your event?
Works well if you have a smaller audience looking to make multiple connections in a short space of time
Smart Badges
Digital name badges, helping people share contact details and harvest content
This solution shifts the focus from a phone to a wearable piece of tech and uses beacon technology to help people connect.
A person’s badge lights up when a connection is made, providing delegates with a digital business card of the people they have met.
Smart Badges can also be clicked to request more information on a particular demonstration or talk.
The technology provides organisers with clear information on movement and engagement across their event.
Techs to checkout:
Klik| Turnoutnow
Is it right for your event?
Works well if you have a large audience who want to move away from apps
Gamification
Grab an audience’s attention through the magic of games
Any of the above solutions can be gamified.
This might be awarding points for making connections or uncovering information through talking to people in a scavenger hunt.
Some solutions offer more overt networking gamification, for example, Limbik Media’s ‘social wearable’ which lights up in different colours as you make more connections.
Techs to checkout:
Social Wearables| Scavify
Is it right for your event?
Works well if you have a competitive audience looking for entertaining ways to connect
What’s coming?
The merging of digital technology into live experiences promises increasingly targeted and intelligent networking.
Facial recognition on smart glasses could power the following scenario: your glasses scan the people around you, pass the information through Linkedin and then suggest the most valuable connections.
Of course, there’s a danger technology could remove the joy of a chance encounter, the wonder of serendipity that makes live events so special. The challenge for those of us designing face-to-face experiences is to integrate networking technology alongside connecting formats and content delivery ideas, ultimately delivering intrinsically human but digitally enhanced interactions.
The next issue in the Super Connectors series will explore how innovative content delivery can help spark more valuable connections.
If you’re interested in having a chat about re-imagining your live experiences:
rachael.staples@liveunion.co.uk
+44 (0) 333 800 6121
liveunion.co.uk
44 Berwick street
London ,W1F 8SE
‘That’s interesting’ are two words you hear a lot in the Live Union office. Once a month we share the most interesting and useful event things we’ve come across.
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