Successful networking ideas for online events

Having been in the industry for over 10 years we’ve seen our fair share of events, supporting thousands of conferences, expos and many other event formats. Our powerful one-to-one meeting software has enabled millions of one-to-one meetings to take place at events over the years. But like many other businesses, in March 2020 when the global coronavirus pandemic took hold, we needed to adapt our platform to ensure we could enable events to continue, online. We transformed our platform into an Event Hub to enable one-to-one Video Chats with screen share and instant messaging, Live Broadcasting areas and break out rooms, on-demand video hubs and much more!

Nearly a year on we’ve enabled over 400 online events to take place and streamed an incredible 4,000,000 minutes of video chat (and counting)! Online events have undoubtedly opened many ‘virtual’ doors, but many platforms and event planners face the same issue, how do you re-create the informal and spontaneous opportunities that face-to-face events bring. Over the past year we’ve seen a variety of ideas being tried out and repeated due to their success. Read some of our case studies here, or find out more below.

One-to-One Video Meetings
Since pivoting their programme of global in person events to digital, a Wine Importer and Distribution Network have already delivered 10 international online sourcing events, bringing fine wine importers and exporters together – online!

They used Meeting Mojo to pre-arrange targeted business partnering meetings on behalf of their clients and attendees, auto-scheduled via a straightforward spreadsheet import consisting only of a list of matched participants. Having ensured a maximum quota of high-quality meetings for important clients, they then opened up the platform to allow participants to request and manage their own additional meetings. Stand-out business profiles, displayed alongside each company in a filterable listing, meant each attendee could choose the most likely business partners to meet.

Virtual Networking Breaks and Private Discussion Groups
Event Company X wanted to enhance their online partnering event and create a more informal way for participants to network during programme breaks. We were able to create Virtual Networking Breaks using our Sessions feature, limited to under 10 people per session, ensuring conversations were intimate and manageable. Access to the Virtual Breaks was opened at specific times during each event day, creating a ‘buzz’ of activity with users able to see who was already in each session before selecting which one they wanted to jump into. At the end of each networking break they could then navigate to the next activity – live sessions or structured one-to-one meetings – within the same platform, even though some of the sessions were hosted on a separate application.

Event Company Y also wanted to provide multi-participant discussion groups, but as completely private, closed discussion groups. They did this through our Private Sessions feature, which ensures only designated participants can view and join their own discussion groups via a link on their personal online meeting schedule. The sessions could also be recorded for distribution to attendees who were unable to attend the live discussion.

Workshops, Private Video Consultations and Breakout Groups
The Kids Kino International film festival recently took place using Meeting Mojo. The event was an international pitching forum for film and series aimed at the children’s market and involved pre-scheduled one-to-one video meetings, workshops and breakout groups along with private video consultations for attendees and a video pitch hub.

Organizers of online events are constantly looking for ways to engage and add value for their attendees, by offering different online experiences. And the Kids Kino event took our digital suite to the next level. As well as virtual 1:1 meetings, attendees were able to view film and TV series previews before the event via the video hub feature, and tune in to live presentations on the festival days. The organizers were able to use a combination of communication sources within a single platform: Vimeo for on-demand content, Zoom for live presentations and Meeting Mojo Video Chat for 1:1 meetings. With log-in only access, content could only be viewed by attendees with paid tickets, preserving revenues and maintaining a sphere of confidentiality for participants.

Interactive Guest Lists and Profiles
Diamond Light Source used Meeting Mojo recently for a scientific conference which took place online. They needed an additional platform to run alongside talks delivered via Zoom, and Meeting Mojo was the perfect accompaniment as it allowed their attendees to network outside of the talks and interact at times that suited their own schedules. Attendees could add posters and videos to our profiles and attendees could direct message and setup meetings with each other at a time that suited them. They had great feedback from their attendees and found the interface so user-friendly we’re already working with Diamond Light Source to deliver more events with them.

Find out more!
Want to find out more? View our recent testimonials here, start a free trial here or request a bespoke interactive demo here.