Why the business card shuffle at events needs to disappear

Rethinking Communications at an Event and Beyond

Events are usually seen as a finite time bookended by the beginning and end of the formalities. But communication to attendees and between attendees is hampered and old school.

We’ve all been to those events. The ones where you spend most of your time in sessions listening to information you’ll forget by the next coffee break. Powerpoint slides created by someone confusing slides for speaker notes, and who’s become a little too enamoured with WordArt.

The break comes for ‘networking’, and you do the ‘business card shuffle’, swapping cards with other attendees that end up stuffing a wallet, or at the bottom of a bag, disappearing until tax time or the rare spring clean.

Events, conferences and seminars have the ability to inform, empower and energise the audience. They’re a powerful way of transmitting a lot of information in a small amount of time. But at the heart of many modern events is a fundamental misunderstanding of when an event begins, and when it ends. Many think an event begins when the MC hits the stage, and ends when they do their closing remarks (or perhaps after the networking drinks that end a little too late).

But modern events don’t have to be that way. Events work best when they leave the attendee with a new idea or way of doing things. The problem is, much of this information is spoken at the attendee, rather than involving them in a way that ensures most, if not all, of the information is retained by the attendees.

Events can be better. Using technology such as smartphone or tablet apps to provide a summary of the key information provided on the day means the attendee walks away with all of the necessary information to ensure they can remember a key tidbit when the need arises.

“…how to continue the communication days, weeks or even months after the event has concluded.”

That same technology also means that events no longer have to be a one-way flow of information?—?instead of being spoken at, attendees can bespoken to. Events that prompt attendees to take their own notes, fill out surveys about the sessions to test their ability, or ask questions to the speaker that provide an instant feedback loop to the event organisers and speakers themselves, gives attendees the chance to involve themselves in the event, and turn them from a passive attendee to an active one.

But the biggest opportunity?—?and one that is often missed by event organisers?—?is how to continue the communication days, weeks or even months after the event has concluded. Networking and the ‘business card shuffle’ both ultimately fail to properly capture the significant and potentially long-lasting connections that people make at such events.

The event doesn’t need to end when the attendee heads home. What if, instead, attendees were able to forgo a business card exchange for formality’s sakes, in favour of the ability to open an app, find the fellow event-goer they were just talking to, and connect with them over a readymade social network? They could continue to discuss what they were talking about at the event, further explore some of the issues that came up on the day, and effectively reinforce in one another some of the key information relayed on the day.

For chronic event goers, that could extend to keeping a connection with many of the attendees that you see at each conference or seminar they attend, providing a single, coherent place in which they can discuss and digest the key information they’ve received that day.

That’s the core thinking behind Proxima Events. We built a product from the ground up with the desire and thinking to change how events are run?—?not just during, but before, and after the event too. Everything from ticketing to content delivery and note taking, through to what happens after the event; the real and tangible connections that attendees make at these events that can make a seminar so much more worthwhile. We’ve changed the way people interact and make connections with messaging.

We think we’ve solved the business card shuffle with Proxima Events, giving attendees the ability to connect during the event, and take that connection beyond the confines of a conference centre.