Creating Community at your Conference or Festival
Imagine if you could talk to everyone at your festival and find out who they would most like to meet. Tell us what patterns would emerge, and we can build a matching system to your needs.
There are two "categories" of tools: for connecting
individuals with individuals (using the carpooling engine, but matching
based on interests rather than seats in the car), and structured forums
for creating groups and for continuing discussions.
Custom individual-to-individual matching.
Imagine if you could interview every attendee coming to your event, and
help them make the perfect connections. What patterns would
emerge?
Would you match mentors with youth? Match neighbors who are
interested
in the same speakers? Start neighborhood book clubs based on the
themes of your conference? Examples:
- A solar conference wants first-time attendees matched with
"Conference Mentors," based on mutual interests.
- A Sustainable Campuses conference wants students and staff from
each campus to mix their carpools and get to know people outside their
usual social circles.
These tools are customized for every event; the above ideas are just
examples. We use the carpool matching engine, but altered for
networking rather than car seats. Send me your first thoughts
about
the connections you would like to make at your event, and I'll tell you
how we can help.
Structured Online Forums
We build and host a bulletin board for you, often combined with
consultation on structuring both the agenda and the online tools so
that attendees can become participants. Attendees can introduce
themselves online, form groups based on both their interests and
geographical community, and ask questions or write replies concerning
the issues of the conference. Speakers can introduce their topics
in
greater detail, read questions beforehand, and continue to interact
afterwards.
Detailed Examples
Conferences:
Festivals:
- Example: Activist Festival Neighbor-Match (PDF).
- Example: If your festival invites and promotes non-profits or cause-driven
organizations, we can provide an online forum for your attendees to connect
with them, sign up for mailing lists, find neighbors interested in the
same non-profit, or even plan small meetings at the festival.
- Arts Festival Example: Connect neighbors to take classes together or attend local music with their neighbors. Let your festival be the place where people make connections that last for years and expose them to new art forms.
- Other Possibilities: Marathons can connect neighbors to train together
before they carpool to the run; political events can create neighborhood
action groups. How do you want to see your attendees form a community?
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