{"id":3590,"date":"2020-11-10T16:28:00","date_gmt":"2020-11-10T21:28:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.meetup.com\/blog\/?p=3590"},"modified":"2021-06-23T17:45:36","modified_gmt":"2021-06-23T21:45:36","slug":"networking-without-being-there","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.meetup.com\/blog\/networking-without-being-there\/","title":{"rendered":"How To Be There For Your Networking Group Without \u201cBeing There\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Use these tools and frameworks to recreate your in-person experience in anyone\u2019s living room.<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>The idea of attending events in person is not really in the cards for many people right now. With the cold weather coming and more people than ever concerned about getting together, in-person networking events are on hold for now.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>But that doesn\u2019t mean that your events have to stop.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>What most event organizers forget is that your network isn\u2019t coming to an event for the food, ambiance, or even the wine.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>They\u2019re coming for the <strong>connection.&nbsp;<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Your audience is interested in meeting each other&#8211;no matter the medium or locale&#8211;because the keys to all the doors we need to open are in other people\u2019s pockets. We want to have as many opportunities as possible to meet other people with those keys. So if your in-person events are on hold, here are some things you can do to take that experience and move it online right now.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Step 1: Get Organized<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>The best events are curated and make you feel that the people in the room are the perfect people for you to meet. This happens when an event organizer is <em>organized. <\/em>Take the time to review who is actually in your group and identify what they are looking for. Most pre-event questionnaires only ask the basic questions about jobs and titles. If you take a little time to ask more in-depth questions about your participants, you are much more likely to know who should meet at the event and find ways to connect them. That\u2019s a much more valuable experience for everyone. Here are some of the questions you can ask:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-group\"><div class=\"wp-block-group__inner-container is-layout-flow wp-block-group-is-layout-flow\">\n<pre class=\"wp-block-verse\">Who are your clients?\nWhat is something that you\u2019ve always wanted to learn?\nWhat is your dream outcome for this event?<\/pre>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>You can use <a href=\"https:\/\/www.google.com\/forms\/about\/\" target=\"_blank\" aria-label=\"undefined (opens in a new tab)\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Google Forms<\/a> and spreadsheets to keep track of this and have a solid plan for when the online gathering actually takes place.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Step 2: Get Creative<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>Everyone is in Zoom calls these days, so the last thing you want is for your event to feel like just another meeting or webinar. If you\u2019ve done step one, you already have valuable information about your guests. Keep in mind, Zoom allows you to create <a href=\"https:\/\/support.zoom.us\/hc\/en-us\/articles\/206476093-Enabling-breakout-rooms\" target=\"_blank\" aria-label=\"undefined (opens in a new tab)\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">breakout rooms<\/a> so everyone isn\u2019t in one place when they arrive. There are a number of ways you can use this feature to spice up the experience and still give your people the opportunity to connect with one another. Here are a few fun things to try:&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>The Bar.<\/strong> With breakout rooms, you can recreate what it is like to be at an event with a bar, letting your audience roam freely to meet one another. All you have to do is set up your breakout rooms with topics like, \u201cAnything but Covid,\u201d \u201cRead any good books lately?\u201d or, \u201cThe best thing I ever ate.\u201d Then make everyone a co-host. This will give everyone the ability to see all the breakout rooms and move from room to room, meeting each other and having conversations. The main Zoom room they entered acts like a centralized \u201cbar\u201d that they can come back to at any time and check in with the larger group&#8211;and you. Note this will not work if the participant is on their phone or an ipad, but it works like a charm on a laptop.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Speed Dating. <\/strong>As the administrator of the breakout rooms, you can decide how long people stay in a room before that room closes and sends everyone back into the main gathering area. You can also move people between rooms manually. This feature can help you create timed speed dating-like experiences. You could host a 2-minute pitch competition for startups, a business speed dating event, or have people do mini-presentations. You control the timing of everything and can orchestrate some fun and engaging experiences.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Murder Mystery.<\/strong> Since an administrator has the ability to pull people in and out of rooms, you can host a murder mystery story. Place clues in various breakout rooms while your participants hop from room to room trying to find the killer. As administrator you can take them out of a room and have them be \u201cdead\u201d for everyone else in the game. It\u2019s a nice change of pace and fun night for your guests.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>These are just a few of the things you can do to create fun experiences for your guests, and you can always mix and match the elements above. Which brings me to the most important step:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Step 3:<\/strong> <strong>Get Back In Touch<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>One of the biggest opportunities you have as an organizer is in the follow up after your event. This is a great time to find out what people enjoyed and what they didn\u2019t. You can also learn which connections were helpful and which were not. Add this information to your spreadsheet so you have even more ideas for matches and experiences for your members down the road.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Remember, virtual networking doesn\u2019t have to feel like a boring webinar. It can be fun and memorable, with the potential to recreate the in-person experience using the tools listed above.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>So fire up that laptop and start reconnecting with everyone who thought the networking bar was closed.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It\u2019s time to bring the party back online.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Michael Roderick is the founder of Small Pond Enterprises, a company that helps thoughtful givers become Thought Leaders. He writes a daily email about relationship building, referrals, and messaging which you can subscribe to <\/em><a href=\"http:\/\/eepurl.com\/cM597L\"><em>here.<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<div class=\"post-excerpt\"><p>Making virtual networking work from home is easier than you think<\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":45,"featured_media":3597,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[81],"tags":[],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v21.2 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>How To Be There For Your Networking Group Without \u201cBeing There\u201d - Meetup Blog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.meetup.com\/blog\/networking-without-being-there\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"How To Be There For Your Networking Group Without \u201cBeing There\u201d - 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