Virtual Event Networking Features that Win Over Attendees

It’s 2023, and this year event organizers are focusing on new and fun ways to excite their attendees and help them find their ideal business match. Today’s networking events can’t just be a row of informative sessions. They require dynamic experiences where they can learn about other attendees and form a connection.

Here is where a virtual networking platform might help. A virtual networking platform provides a range of features that make events more interactive, engaging, and entertaining.

If this is your first time organizing a virtual networking event and you’re unsure which virtual networking software should support your event, keep reading to find out which virtual networking features you should keep an eye out for.

1. Rich participant profile

The participant profile is a fantastic feature that encourages event attendees to submit valuable information, so they can choose their ideal meeting partners based on similar interests and spend more time together when they eventually meet.

On the b2match event networking platform, your attendees can include a picture and a brief introduction bio. They can answer questions about experience, and education, and present other information they consider relevant. Your participants can even upload their resumes or any other required documents.

Let b2match’s AI Recommendation System do all the work! This AI-powered networking platform employs machine learning algorithms that process large amounts of data to recommend interesting profiles to every participant.

2. Pre-event live chat

Event live chat is by now a standard feature any networking platform vendor offers. But not every platform offers pre-event live chat. Pre-event live chat allows attendees to introduce themselves and network with other participants before the event even starts.

With a built-in chat platform, b2match gives event organizers more control over the conversation’s trajectory and makes it simple for participants to engage in meaningful conversations.

3. Connect on social media

Social media plays a significant role in online event matchmaking and can help your attendees grow their networks, which is why your event matchmaking software should incorporate them.

With the all-in-one social wall solution Walls.io, you can gather, curate, and display content in an easy-to-customize feed. You can collect content from other social media sites or ask your audience to upload content to your wall. You can add your own posts to the feed to create a pleasing blend of content produced by your audience and content your company or organization wants to share. By integrating Walls.io, b2match can provide its clients with a more sophisticated platform experience and higher levels of engagement during any type of online event.

4. Gamification and icebreaker games

For many people, attending a networking event can be scary and intimidating. It's a good idea to start with interactive activities to help break the ice. It lessens the strain and fosters an enjoyable, laid-back atmosphere where individuals may get to know one another better. Overall, it gives the encounter a more positive feeling.

You may offer activities like Kahoot quizzes, which you can quickly incorporate on the b2match matchmaking platform, to break the ice and promote self-expression. Scavenger hunts are another activity you may plan, giving your guests a list of tasks to complete while they are there. You can hide hints in your agenda or speaker profiles that the participants must find to discover the answer and win a prize.

5. Roundtables

Creating a roundtable is one of the best ways to promote attendance at your virtual event. These events promote conversation, teamwork, and idea-sharing among participants. Users can meet more people at once, reducing the need to repeatedly disclose personal information.

On the b2match event networking platform, you can organize a roundtable by sorting your attendees into groups of four or five and dividing them among several group meetings.

However, for a successful roundtable, it is essential to carefully divide participants into groups.

Here is where an AI-powered event matchmaking software like b2match can be worth its weight in gold. b2match's AI Meeting Recommender system uses artificial intelligence to suggest intriguing profiles to each participant while still adhering to GDPR. Once the system generates recommendations, they are ready to be presented to participants.

Participants can express an interest in meeting with other attendees and rank the priority of their expressed interests as low, medium, or high. Before scheduling is complete, participants can quickly reorder their preferences on the list if they change their minds.

6. Closed captioning

Another task of event organizers today is to support diversity and inclusion at their events. One way to make events more understandable and accessible online is to add captions when they are being broadcast live. These are essential for those who need them to participate, including deaf or hard-of-hearing users and those who like to watch videos with captions. It has also been proven that captions improve information retention and viewer engagement.

7. Virtual booths

As we've previously stated, networking events today can't merely be a series of educational sessions that follow a set timetable.

Create virtual booths to give your attendees more freedom. Virtual booths are a great spot for attendees to find all the necessary information, communicate with company representatives, and network with other participants via virtual booths.

On the b2match hybrid matchmaking platform for events, you can set up event components like videos, info packages, live streams of guest speakers, and meeting rooms for in-depth interviews.

8. Mobile event networking app

We are all aware of the significant role that mobile phones play in our daily lives, particularly in the corporate sphere. We must always have easy access to pertinent information in the palm of our hands.

Because of this, a mobile app is an essential component that every virtual or hybrid event networking platform ought to have.

The b2match mobile event networking app offers quick access to the entire event and individual attendee agendas. It also provides a clear overview of sessions and meetings with information on their times and locations, as simple session management with one-tap login and logout. A complete attendance list with AI-powered profile recommendations gives an overview of all participants and indicators of who is online to simplify the matchmaking process for you and your attendees.

Participants can request meetings directly from the app, which simplifies meeting management. Another essential component that helps users effectively establish meaningful connections and advance their networking is the built-in messaging feature. They can include messages with meeting requests to make scheduling smoother, and attendees can stay in touch and maintain professional relationships even after the event has ended.

The New Year is a great opportunity to self-reflect and see where you might use improvement. If you have “enhancing networking” between your business resolutions, try employing these virtual event networking features and see how much easier your attendees network with each other. If you want to learn more about b2match’s networking features, contact our sales team.