The Networking area remains one of the pillar experiences of an event on RingCentral. It’s personal, it’s fun, and it’s smooth.
When creating a new event, you will need to enable the People area to be able to use the Networking feature. You can find this on the Setup > Basics page on the Event Dashboard.
Next, head over to the Event Dashboard > Venue > Networking page look for the heading "Speed Networking." Here, you will see a toggle for "Enable speed networking."
Turn that on and choose how you would like pair people up:
- Random - everyone can meet everyone!
- By ticket type - match attendees based on their ticket type, find out more here
Don't forget to hit Save.
The Networking area is simple and straightforward, but there are some rules, concepts, and tips that are vital to know — all of which we cover below.
How Networking works on RingCentral
Head over to the Networking area in your event, where you will see a panel for Speed Networking.
The Networking feature on RingCentral is the place for automated one-on-one meetings and is RingCentral's way of facilitating connection discovery at an event. Similar to an experience that feels like FaceTime or Hangouts, RingCentral pairs two people over a direct video call.
In Networking, when someone clicks the Join now button, the system searches for someone else who has also clicked the Join now button. If someone else is available, the person's profile details show up on the screen for some seconds and then the two are matched instantly and the video chat begins and lasts for a preset amount of time.
The default duration for one meeting is 30 seconds as the minimum and 3 minute as the maximum. However, these numbers can be changed. The organizer can set any duration for the minimum and maximum while setting up the networking segment.
Attendees see a timer countdown on the top side of the screen. When the time expires, the meeting ends.
To change the Networking meeting duration:
- Go to your Event Dashboard > Venue > Networking
- Make sure that you have turned on the toggle for "enable speed networking" (see above)
- Adjust the maximum and minimum meeting duration (in seconds)
- Click Save
The minimum meeting duration, is the amount of time (in seconds) that each meeting must last before the Leave button becomes active and an attendee can end the meeting to go on to the next. The minimum meeting duration is a safeguard to prevent attendees from rifling through meetings as fast as possible to reach a desired person.
In a Networking meeting, the blue Connect button shows up at the top right corner of the screen. The purpose of this button is to give users the ability to quickly and easily exchange contact information, similar to exchanging business cards at a physical event.
If one person clicks Connect, the other will see a small pop-up on their screen to say that they want to exchange contacts.
If both people click Connect, a connection registers. When a connection registers, both people will see a small pop-up to let them know it has been successful and they will see the others’ contact info on the Connections tab of their Profile.
Extending the Networking Session
Users are able to extend the meeting by clicking the Extend button. As the button is clicked, the other participant will receive a notification to confirm if they wish to extend the meeting.
How Ticket Matching works
By default, RingCentral networking is like a professional Chatroulette embedded in your event, but you can configure the Networking area so that it’s not so random. You can program RingCentral to match certain ticket holders with other certain ticket holders only (e.g. “Job seekers” with “Employers”).
You can find these settings on the Event Dashboard > Venue > Networking page.
To match people via ticket type click Use this option on the "By ticket type" option and then click Change settings.
A new panel will open up with a list of all of the ticket types that you have created. Click on the field next to each one to add which ticket types you would like them to meet with. Click the "X" in the top right hand corner to close the panel and then click Save.
Why can I not match with anyone?
There are several reasons you may not be matching with anyone on Networking such as:
- Once you meet someone in the Networking area at an event, you will not be matched with that person in the Networking area again at that event
- Your tickets are not matched up in Ticket Matching
- Other attendees are currently in meetings
If you do not match with anyone after some time, you will be shown a screen that says "Timed Out." You can click the Try again button to continue trying to connect to someone.
Important Networking rules to know
- Networking defaults to letting everyone meet everyone. This can be changed under RingCentral ticket matching
- You can set up 1:1 meetings with other attendees via the People tab of the event venue. You can also use Sessions for these meetings
- Networking meetings are not recorded or recordable
- Users can turn off their camera in the Networking area
- Report any users using the three dots in the right-side menu, next to the People tab. Indicate the reason and we will investigate and ban any users who violated our terms of use
- Screen sharing is not possible in Networking
- In order to begin networking, an attendee must have a camera and microphone connected to their device and allowed in their browser
- Any changes made to the Networking settings during a live event will affect only those who navigate away and back to networking after the changes were saved