Networking event activities trivia

I’ve been focusing my blog writing lately on the various ways TrivWorks utilizes live trivia to engage different types of audiences. Today, I’d like to zero in on a fun one, which I’ve enjoyed producing for quite a number of years now: activities for professional networking events.

My experience with structured social and networking programs actually stretches back to before I launched a trivia company for corporate events in New York City. It actually goes back over ten years ago, when I was working at Manhattan’s 92^nd Street Y – a prestigious cultural and community center – as an event programmer. As director of adult education programs, I was responsible for planning and producing over 500 annual programs: enrichment classes, lectures, guided tours & excursions throughout the city, support groups, cooking classes, language classes and more.

I was also in charge of singles events.

I’d never really gone to a singles event before I was put in charge of programming them. But I learned quickly what they weer all about, and discovered that singles activities really are their own special animal. Probably the biggest challenge is that success or failure of singles events depends entirely upon the attendees themselves: who shows up, how many, the gender ratio, the age range. In short, these are all factors which the planner has little control over. However, I also learned that there ARE tools available, such as learning how to “bill” an event for a target audience, how to promote, how to cap off advance registration, and even when to throw in the towel and cancel in advance. I must have produced over 100 singles events during my six years working at 92Y, and I used what I learned to produce trivia singles events for other brands as well, including JCC Manhattan, JDate, HurryDate and other organizations (follow this link to learn more).

With trivia/networking events, the challenges as well as desired experience are strikingly similar to a singles event. The planner may not necessarily be looking to spark romantic relationships, but the goal is still to introduce strangers, get them talking to one another, and leave feeling like they’ve made new connections which could lead to something else. Of course, there is also the issue of the attendees making or breaking the event – but not nearly as much as with singles events.

Typically, people who go to a singles program are only interested in meeting half of the other attendees (ie: the opposite gender). Any experienced singles out there know that the ratio is also never 50/50; there are invariably more women in attendance than men, that’s just a fact (I have many theories as to why that is, but I’m not going to go into that here). With networking events, however, every single person in that room could be a potential lead, a possible collaborator, a prospective new client. There’s no discriminating going on here, and that helps make things easier right from the very start.

I recently produced two trivia/networking events over the past couple of weeks: one in NYC, one in Southern California. The California one I attended and emceed myself: it was a quarterly professional networking night, sponsored by the local branch of a major Fortune 500 company. They included the fact that trivia would be a part of the program in the event invitation, which helped boost interest and early registration – a key factor in understanding how many people will be expected to participate. Professionals are so busy, and it’s always a challenge for planners to come up with compelling & engaging networking activities which people will respond well to. I’m proud to say that trivia is always well-received, and as expected, we got a great turnout!

Like a singles program, we had music, wine and appetizers flowing upon arrival as guests mingled freely. This is a really critical step, as it allows people to transition from being anxious and self-conscious in a room full of strangers, to relaxing and unwinding a bit, before the structured program starts (any structured program is better than nothing, by the way – people need more than just a glass of wine to get the most out of a professional social experience like this). Once everybody who was going to arrive had shown up and was properly fed/imbibed, they were broken into teams – not with their friends, mind you, but randomly assigned, to ensure that people were compelled to mix it up with folks they didn’t know (which was the point, after all!).

I then led our standard team trivia contest, with one fun twist: while the full-room rounds were being graded, I invited pairs of volunteers to come to the front of the room for a head-to-head trivia bout. As a reward for being brave and volunteering, however, I also allowed each attendee to provide their 30-second “elevator pitch” to the room  – ensuring that they’d be introduced to everybody in a fun and memorable way, that made them stand out from all of the other attendees. At the event’s conclusion, we threw the music back on and opened it up to one final free mingle, so that people could talk to others in the room whom they hadn’t yet had a chance to meet. It worked great, and they all loved it!

Zip over to the other side of the country, and TrivWorks also produced a trivia “speed networking” program for continuing education students at a prestigious university. The idea here was similar to the corporate event networking event in SoCal, only instead of young professionals, it was students who shared something in common: they were all part of the school community. Like the California event, the invitation made trivia front and center, to help generate buzz. At the event itself, we had a slightly different format: instead of a free mingle at the top of the program, everyone was given a name tad and a colored sticker upon arrival (with the school colors, of course), and our emcee led a structured “speed dating-style” networking session. Attendees were instructed to find somebody with the same color sticker, and given two minutes to chat before the buzzer rang, and they were directed to move on to another person. This is a fun and easy networking  icebreaker activity to strike up a conversation with a total stranger, since it provides attendees with an “in” to go up and initiate a chat.

After about 20-30 minutes, everybody in the room had been given a chance to talk to a large number of the other attendees, and felt a sense of familiarity with each other before we then dived into the team trivia contest. As with the SoCal event, individual contestants were invited to give their elevator pitch, as well as partake in a fun trivia bout. By the end of the evening, everybody had not only exchanged contact information but was taking selfies with one another – it was a huge hit!

I am so pleased with how well these unique trivia/networking events have been going. It provides a fun reason for people to attend, opportunities to mix it up with people in a structured way, but also isn’t too serious, too formal, too stuffy. Oh, and by the way – as with all of our events, the trivia questions for the two aforementioned gigs had been tailored to the respective audiences, to make sure that the material was highly appropriate and accessible to the guests in attendance. The end result was hugely successful events, creating a positive shared social experience for people to talk about the next time they’re in a room together. What more could I possible ask!