Award-winning IntroNetworks to enhance conference interaction

TECHNOLOGY It's difficult to believe that it's scarcely more than five years since it could be reasonably assumed that all organisers and conference delegates all had email address and ready access to the internet. In the events industry it is barely conceivable that an international or even national meeting could be successfully organised independent of the world wide web. In California, a powerful new tool called IntroNetworks has been developed to maximise the networking potential of meetings. It's a sophisticated device designed to bring people with similar interests and objectives together before, during and after the conference. The developers call it 'business dating' — an application that fosters group interaction and introduces people to one another. It puts people in touch with others whom they'd really like to know better. The project won EIBTM's World Wide Technology Watch award in Barcelona in December last year. Simply explained, ahead of the meeting, the intending delegate logs into a customised website and enters a wide range of business and personal information. The system then analyses the data received and displays a relational diagram that looks like a pin cushion, with every pin representing a delegate. It's then a matter of simply clicking on a pin to get the information on that particular delegate. Most laptop computers today have both camera and microphone functions and this allows people using the IntroNetwork to send either images of themselves or short movie 'clips' to introduce themselves and their businesses. This might seem a little far fetched, but the reality is that wireless internet connections are to be found in just about every convention centre, international hotel and airport worth its salt. Attending meetings are a considerable investment in time and money. Any process that can further the networking that delegates universally acknowledge is a significant motivation to attend and needs to be taken seriously. This might not be necessary when there is a meeting of 100 to 250 delegates, but when the numbers climb into the hundreds or thousands, it simply isn't feasible for the delegate to make contact by simply scanning name badges at tea and lunch breaks.