Event Networking Gamification: How to Skyrocket Attendee Experience

Attendee engagement is often the biggest challenge for event organizers. If attendee experience and engagement are not on point, the whole event can go in the wrong direction. That is why gamification is quite a trend lately, especially in the last few years after the digital technology upturn.

What is event networking gamification?

Simply put, gamification means using elements of game playing, such as badges, points, or challenges, and applying them to other areas of event activities. Gamification itself can bring the education and engagement of attendees together in an event. If you implement gamification elements to your event networking platform, you will enhance the entire event experience for your attendees. The aim of gamification is to complete challenges, receive points for them, and encourage your participants to meet and engage with one another to build valuable connections.

Over the last few years, after advancements in digital technology, many events moved online and are now held on a hybrid or virtual event networking platform. So why do you need gamification at your networking event?

First of all, gamification improves your attendee engagement which ultimately gives the perfect boost to your event's success. It makes your event networking process simpler and more enjoyable for everyone at the event.

Before you decide to gamify your event

In any networking event, there are specific steps necessary to gamify your event successfully.

Making a good strategy is crucial. Applications like Kahoot or Quizlet can be integrated into our b2match event matchmaking software. Decide what are the most effective apps for the purpose of improving your participants’ experience. Think about your budget, find out the apps prices or if there are any free versions.

If you are looking for a way to ease your attendees into the event, creating a fun quiz is a good way to start. But, before you display the quiz to your networking event attendees, check if there are any technical difficulties, especially if you are hosting an event through our virtual platform. Make sure to test your audio and video setup before starting, as well as your internet connection.

Be careful - don’t overuse this technique. Too many questions can tire the attendees. Keep it short and simple.

Here are some event networking gamification tools you can consider for your next event.

Q&A and polls sessions

Polling can be based on any of the topics related to the event. Attendees can vote on provided information and give their opinions. This is a great way to gather feedback, gain insights, and improve the entire event experience for your participants. If you want, you can award your attendees with badges or gift cards for example. But, the important thing is to encourage participation.

Even though organizers can ask questions by themselves, good advice is to encourage the attendees to ask relevant questions and start interesting discussions. The main goal is open communication. Participants can start various conversations and inform themselves about everything that is in their interest.

Using Sli.do is a good way to make your sessions more interactive. If you are implementing a Q&A platform, prepare some questions in advance and submit a few of them after the session begins. By doing that, the attendees will interact with the questions listed by voting and submitting their own questions and answers. It is also advisable to invite the speakers to respond to some highlighted questions after the event and share important answers with participants.

Exploring the venue

When organizing an in-person networking event, organizers need to help their attendees get acquainted with the event venue. Venue ambient can affect overall attendee feedback regarding event organization, event management, and vibe. To do that, you can organize a scavenger hunt. The search may go through the entire venue. But make sure your location has enough space for all attendees to hold a conversation. Venues influence many aspects of your event and one of them is networking.

Competitive event networking

If you are looking for a fun way to enhance your networking event, you can always add some competition to it. Games like scavenger hunts, polls, and Kahoot quizzes can be integrated into our all in one event management software. All your participants can be involved, no matter whether they are attending the event virtually or physically.

The main point of implementing games, polls, Q$As, quizzes, and surveys into your event networking event is to engage your participants in a variety of different ways. Seize their views, help them feel more connected, and use all the benefits of the matchmaking features. Sometimes, all it takes to get your participant to complete a quick survey is a little tribute in form of ranks or points. This is the true goal of gamification - enhancing the experience for attendees and creating a more engaging and productive networking environment.