How to build one-to-one interaction in physical events?

What will be the highest expectation for the audience in a physical event? And what can be the key to a successful in-person event? 

Is it the guests or the speakers?

Is it the venue and the decorations?

Is it entertainment and learning factors?

Or is it the hospitality?

No, the two major components that make an event successful are keeping the participants engaged and creating a space to network seamlessly. 

Engagement among the participants and with the hosts and sponsors at events is crucial to its overall success, and you can boost audience engagement in many ways. One such way is one-on-one interactions among the audience. One-on-one interactions are the highest level of engagement, with the highest probability of growing into a relationship. 

But, building one-on-one interaction is not easy. Every participant can’t be comfortable meeting their fellow participants and instantly start conversing. So as event planners, you can help them break the ice, start conversations and build relationships. 

You must get creative to keep your audience involved with your brand and socialize with each other. Here are a few tips and tricks to build one-on-one interactions among event participants.

Ice-Breaker Activities

Ice breaker activities help the event participants shed the walls or break the ice around themselves. After the walls come down, participants will start feeling comfortable and communicating more with each other. The main objective of ice-breaker sessions or activities is to get participants to know each other. The best ice-breakers activities have the power to initiate participants’ bonds, stimulate better networking sessions and create an atmosphere of inclusivity. Plan ice-breaker activities that your audience demographics will enjoy and, at the same time, help them in changing the awkward discomfort in the event.

Gamification

You can integrate virtual games or add in-person games to incentivize attendees to become active participants in the events. You can select games which can be played as couples, like scavenger hunts and then reward them with points or badges for actively participating. You can add trivia games based on your brands and let the participant couples answer the questions. It will allow the team to start conversing one-on-one and better know each other.

Networking forums

You can organise networking forums and debates. You can select a topic related to your event theme or any topic that will interest your audience and let them discuss it. It will allow people with a common interest to know each other and build one-on-one conversations.

Targeted connections 

When you get your participants registered for the event, you can put up a few questions and try to learn their interests and intentions on attending the event. You can use these answers to match the participants and form group activities based on their shared interests or intentions. It can be roundtable discussions, games or any other activity with a purpose. From there, people can also build one-on-one conversations with their fellow participants they want to. 

Here are a few tips for building one-on-one networking for participants in events

• Look for people with shared interests, and start communication with them.
• When you approach for a conversation, have a point on which you can start and build the conversation.
• When you start conversing over interest or a topic, ensure the facts you put out are verified, and also, you should be keen on listening to it.
• If possible, make the conversation mutually beneficial. It will be helpful for the conversation to grow into a more significant networking space. 
• Don’t hog the conversation; ensure to respect everyone’s time and priority. Your fellow participants might be interested in engaging in other activities happening at the event, so better enquire about their priority and grow your conversation. 
• Always remember the conversation etiquette. Never be pushy or salesy. For example, if you are looking for a job recommendation, you should not directly ask for it. You should have the patience to build the conversation, follow up regularly, and make it into a trustable acquaintance relationship. Once you reach that stage, you can put forth your request. 

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Summing up

One-on-one conversations are the best form of networking effort for event participants. They can build their network, know many resource people at a personal level and gain knowledge. So, event planners should build some ice breakers, networking and gamification activities to help the participants actively converse with fellow participants. And participants need to put on there to build the one-on-one conversation from those activities. 

‍Wizit is a modern device agnostic in-person DIY event experience app. It is a new-age technology that solves every need of event planners to organise any event effortlessly. It also provides a one-stop solution for the communication needs between event managers and participants.