08/07/2020

Three Ways to Host Informal Networking Opportunities During Virtual Events

How to recreate "the hang"

A few weeks ago, I came across this article on WIRED about virtual tech conferences. The piece not only dove into some of the pluses of virtual events (e.g., lowered barriers to entry, reduced travel costs) but also highlighted what a lot of virtual attendees were missing, which it appropriately titled “the hang.”

Those are the chance meetings or hallway conversations that attendees have while in line at registration, as they grab a coffee, or when they are seated next to each other waiting for a session to start.

“Conferences aren’t just about what’s on the schedule, but the side conversations and the other social aspects,” said Christina Warren, a former tech journalist and current podcast host who now works as senior cloud developer advocate at Microsoft, to Wired. “I don’t think we’ve quite figured out as an entire industry what the best way is to bring in some of those social interactions when an event is virtual.”

Please select this link to read the complete article from Associations Now.