January 22, 2006
Got a Match?
Posted by Kevin | Print This Article
Had a freewheeling conversation with a former association colleague and current good friend over drinks the other night (and the more drinks we had, the more freewheeling we got). One of the things we laughed about was the tendency of organizations (not just associations) to jump on bandwagons — even in those cases when it only takes a few seconds to realize that a particular bandwagon is missing a wheel or two.
Case in point: “matchmaking” for meetings. These are the programs that encourage attendees to an event to list their “interests” so they can be “matched” with similar attendees to encourage networking, peer learning, etc.
Now, don’t get me wrong, the concept in and of itself is a good one. Most of us agree that the most useful outcomes of conferences or meetings are those that come from conversations with other people (the so-called “hallway track”). If we can bottle that sort of thing up and make it easier, we should have a more successful meeting for our attendees, right?
Except the way some conferences are doing it now is not necessarily making it easier. I can only go on my own experience here, and to be honest, I haven’t paid too much attention to these programs. However, it seems that the events I’ve been to that tried this all required me to go to some website and enter my interests or issues, so I could then be told what other registered attendees most closely matched. There are three things I’ve noticed about these programs.
1. Since these are all associations I’ve belonged to for quite some time, why do I have to tell them what my interests are? Why don’t they already know what my interests are?
2. What am I supposed to do with a list of attendees?
3. Just because someone may have the same interests as me doesn’t mean they have anything useful to teach me. That probably sounds harsher than I mean it. What I mean is, how useful is a list of people’s interests/issues without any context? There are lots of things I’m interested in that I don’t know anything about. There are a few other things I’m interested in that I’ve got a lot of experience in. The same is true of everybody else.
Perhaps there are organizations that have solved these problems. In which case, I’d love to hear about it.
The truth is that associations are in the matchmaking business — we make connections between members. Or so we say; are we really doing it? If so, we wouldn’t need a standalone program for a conference or tradeshow. Members would already be making connections and making plans to meet in Vegas. If we want to make it easier for them to meet up in Vegas, we should be focusing on building connections all year long.
Perhaps what each association needs is a MySpace for their members.
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Kevin, I’m inclined to agree with you on your first point: Since these are all associations I’ve belonged to for quite some time, why do I have to tell them what my interests are? Why don’t they already know what my interests are?
Definitely. I also don’t appreciate having to fill in my interests on these things when the meeting organizers already have my info on file. That’s not very respectful of my time.
But on your second and third points I would offer the following:
What am I supposed to do with a list of attendees?
Here’s a crazy idea: Call or e-mail them! Chat a little and see if they’d like to meet for coffee or lunch or beers. The meeting organizers can help you find potential connections, but they shouldn’t have to arrange meet ups, nor would many attendees appreciate this. If they choose to take part, attendees have to be active participants in the process.
Just because someone may have the same interests as me doesn’t mean they have anything useful to teach me. That probably sounds harsher than I mean it. What I mean is, how useful is a list of people’s interests/issues without any context? There are lots of things I’m interested in that I don’t know anything about. There are a few other things I’m interested in that I’ve got a lot of experience in. The same is true of everybody else.
This is probably a matter of personal preference, but I usually approach such meet ups as a chance to get to know someone and lay the foundation for a professional relationship, not to conduct an intellectual transaction during the conference. However, those who design these ‘matchmaking’ programs should probably include fields that allow users to identify their levels of expertise on various interest areas.