Product Update: Enhance Virtual Networking with Auto-match

Picture this: you’re attending a virtual conference that’s full of people you want to network with. You’ve got your e-business cards and elevator pitch ready to go. But… you’re not sure which people within the chat rooms are the right people to speak to. There are lots of user profiles, but sifting through each one to find your best match could take a long time. What’s an enthusiastic networker to do?!

Enter Auto-match for Virtual Networking 

vFairs has developed a brand new solution that helps auto-match attendees and exhibitors with other event-goers. Event participants can be matched based on different skills, interests or areas of expertise. Users can fill in various form fields within the registration form, or fill in their user profile within the event to be more accurately matched with the right types of people. When browsing attendee profiles, users will see an option within the search filters saying “Recommended/Matched Profiles”. By clicking this option, a list of your best matches will pop up!

Benefits of the vFairs Auto-match Feature

The auto-match feature is the perfect prompt to encourage conversations in any type of virtual event. Whether making sales at trade shows or finding candidates at virtual career fairs, this feature is beneficial for hosts, exhibitors and participants alike!

Virtual Networking Benefits for Hosts 

We know hosts are always looking for ways to increase value for their attendees and keep them coming back for future events. The vFairs auto-match feature improves your attendees’ experience by providing valuable information and access to new contacts within the event. Additionally, it encourages engagement within your event, and helps build a positive repertoire between exhibitors, attendees and you. 

Also, with all this extra activity within your event comes additional data to analyze post-event. You can see whether auto-matchmaking helped boost chats, audio and video calls, and meeting scheduling by comparing to past events that didn’t use this feature!

Virtual Networking Benefits for Participants and Exhibitors

Your event participants and exhibitors are the real winners here. The auto-match feature adds a ton of value to their event experience. It improves their access to highly relevant and qualified contacts, which in turn fosters more leads and meetings booked. Additionally, participants and exhibitors can start chats, and audio or video calls with a good understanding of who they are engaging with. This will help them go into conversations with a more tailored pitch. Let’s see how this could shake out with a few different use cases.

Popular Use Cases for the Auto-match Feature

Virtual Conferences

Networking and creating new contacts is a key benefit to attending a virtual conference. Your attendees can use this feature to start conversations with contacts within their industry who can help them hit their business goals. For example, you could have a wholesaler participating in your conference who is looking for new, unique products to supply their stores with. Their auto-match results could display small business owners who produce unique items within their region. The wholesaler can then click on each owner’s profile, review their details, and even start chats or calls with them to better understand their products.

Virtual Trade Shows

Your exhibitors will love this one! During your virtual trade show, an exhibitor can proactively scout potential customers using the auto-match feature. Their auto-match results could display attendees who fit their target persona. For example, if your exhibitor represents a catering company exhibiting in the virtual trade show, and they are looking for new retirement communities to service, the auto-match results can display operations managers from retirement homes. Again, once your exhibitor has reviewed the manager’s profile and deemed it’s the right match, they can request a meeting to demo their menus.

Virtual Career Fairs

Virtual career fairs rely pretty heavily on candidates filling in their user profiles. Auto-match alleviates a ton of the work hiring managers usually have to do within a virtual career fair. For example, as a host, you can request that job seekers fill in an application-style registration form complete with all their experience, career interests, and previous job titles. Each hiring manager can also input the profile information most relevant to the jobs they’re looking to hire. Auto-match could then show the hiring manager relevant profiles, and help them more easily contact qualified candidates for meetings or simply to chat more.

Virtual Open Days 

Trying to find the right prospective students at a virtual open day? It can sometimes feel intimidating to search through student profiles from all different backgrounds, with different program interests — auto-match can help. For example, if you’re trying to improve application rates to a new arts program that requires a strong educational background in creative writing and drama, you can be auto-matched with student profiles who fit that description. Then, you can use your time looking through only the relevant student profiles and reaching out to those who catch your eye to encourage them to apply to your program.

How to Use the Auto-match Feature for Virtual Networking

For Hosts 

• Navigate to your vFairs backend and click “Event Settings” on the left side menu. 
• Scroll down to “Advanced Settings” and click the “+” sign. 
• Scroll down to the “Attendee Matchmaking” section and turn the toggle switch to “Yes” for “Attendee to Attendee Matchmaking” and/or “Attendee to Exhibitor Matchmaking”.
• Once enabled, click “Edit Matchmaking Fields” and choose which fields your attendees or exhibitors can enter. Then hit “Save”.
  ** Note that attendee to exhibitor form fields can be different. 
• Scroll down to the bottom of the settings page and click “Update”. 

For Attendees/Exhibitors

• Upon registration, you’ll be asked to fill in form fields outlining your interests, expertise, or any other information the host has determined in their matchmaking setup form. 
• Once you log into the event, navigate to “User Profile Search” and hit “Recommended/Matched Profiles”. 
• Based on your own inputs, you will be matched with similar types of event attendees or exhibitors. For example, someone who has identified an interest in cryptocurrency will be matched with others with the same interest. 
• Note that you can update your profile at any time during the event and get matched with new attendees. Simply click “Edit Profile” in the top right side corner of your vFairs event, update your information, and hit “Save”.

Key Takeaways

Our auto-match feature is a useful tool to include with pretty much any virtual event you’re looking to host. The networking benefits are huge, and help foster really meaningful connections. Plus, they help add value for time spent within the virtual event — a win-win for hosts, exhibitors and attendees alike! 

To learn more about the auto-match feature, talk to your sales manager today!