Reimagining Networking For Digital Events

When professional associations poll conference attendees on what they value most about the event, education and networking often toggle the #1 and #2 slots. And in turn, we focus a lot of our experience design budget and effort around these priorities. As so many events transition online, two of the top questions professionals ask me are

1. How can we make virtual sessions engaging?
2. How can we create meaningful online networking opportunities for attendees?

Love these questions! Let's focus for a moment on networking.

Access my recent post, 4 Quick Tips for Engaging Learners and my Engaging Learners eBook for a deeper look at what triggers engagement.

Often we separate education and networking in our minds as if they are separate activities. And at some conferences they are. Attendees will sit and listen to presentations and then they'll step into hallways and attend parties to process out loud with other participants. This isn't actually ideal.

Networking should begin in the classroom around the content so we can easily identify people we want to connect with in conversation spaces.

Think about it. Why do we network at events?

1. Find colleagues with similar interests and goals
2. Meet people from organizations we're interested in
3. Find mentors or identify leaders we want to coordinate informational interviews with
4. Meet prospective clients or identify people solving the same problems we are
5. Meet people with an interesting perspective or unique skill set we could partner with
6. Meet people who can introduce us to people - whether you're exploring opportunities in your field or actively seeking a career change
7. Connect with others to learn from their experiences

The reason so many find it difficult to network is not an introvert/extrovert thing, it's because it's a cold conversation thing. You step into a hallway teeming with people or into a party full of professionals you don't know and you have to find inroads to conversation.

Brain Bomb: Those conversations should begin in the classroom!

Merging Education and Networking

Consider this: If we follow through on the instinct to design engaging learning experiences, we'll naturally incorporate interaction. And if we support best practices for adult learning in workforce development, we'll incorporate peer learning honoring the expertise attendees walk into the learning room with. And if we facilitate peer learning and co-creation, we introduce networking around content into the experience - which means we engage one of the most natural, meaningful and memorable ways to connect with other humans: around shared interests and solutions.

Think about it

• We attend sessions in alignment with our interests, goals and problems we want to solve. That's a great place to meet people of like minds we'd really like to get to know better.
• Colleague introductions, session conversations, breakout "table talks" and working groups help us identify people we'd like to connect with.
• Peer learning opportunities in pairs, task groups, or even large group conversation help us identify people aligned with our networking interests - but now we also have a conversation starter: Hi, we met at the session this morning. Yea, it was great. And I loved what you said about learner engagement. I'm curious to know - what are some of the ways you've seen or created engaging learning experiences around [specific] content?

No longer is this a cold contact. The chill of appearing awkward and walking up to a stranger is no longer an issue because you have an inroad: an interest, goal, problem or at least a common experience (attending the session) in common. That's a warm contact. And that is light years better than random chit chat at receptions, parties, hallways or restroom lines. You might hit the connection jackpot there, but connecting people while in the very context of shared meaning is an incredible gift.

Three Quick Tips

So how can we roll this into what we're doing right now?

1. In your pre-event communication, inform your participants this is what you're doing. Prime them to look for potential connections during learning sessions and show them all the conversation spaces and connection modalities you're offering during and after the event so those warm introductions can become colleagues, friends, mentors, clients and partners.
2. Design education sessions infused with interaction - and prioritize peer engagement and connection. The lovely thing is peer processing and co-creation is one of the stickiest and most engaging learning strategies.
3. Offer both conversation spaces and digital connection options for in-between sessions and post event networking. Conversation spaces could be a happy hour, but we have so many other ways to connect online we can actually give the HH construct a break and reimagine meaningful connection. (Bonus: with warm intros beginning in the classroom, liquid courage may not be required to strike up cold convos! ;)

So much more is possible when we stop thinking virtual conferences are a poor substitute for location-based events and begin opening our eyes to the incredible opportunity virtual learning and networking spaces afford -- rich experiences we couldn't even dream of hosting in physical venues!

Treat your event guests to meaningful interaction in both education and conversation spaces and watch new colleague connections blossom.

Learning design team, assemble!

If you're looking for a design assist, we'd be honored to lend a hand.

Tracy King, MA, CAE

As Chief Learning Strategist & CEO of InspirEd, Tracy King leverages more than 20 years in workforce development consulting with organizations on education strategy and learning design. Tracy is the author of the award-winning book?Competitive Advantage, and they advise on how to grow reliably profitable and sustainable continuing education programs that transform learners. Tracy specializes in the intersection of learning science and technology. They are a thought leader, master learning designer and DELP Scholar. Their work has been featured on NBC, ABC, FOX, USA Today, Forbes, The Star Tribune and hundreds of nationally syndicated television, newspaper, and magazine outlets. For more information, please visit them online at www.inspired-ed.com?