The following article is a case study of the pre-event deployment of a social networking system provided by introNetworks.

In November 2006, a large education conference in the engineering industry employed the introNetworks social networking system. This introNetworks client launched the tool three months in advance of their event. The introNetwork solution not only gave attendees the chance to meet and connect with one another before the show, but it also provided the client with valuable metrics about attendee trends and preferences based on information that the attendees posted in their personal profiles.

The client drove attendees to their introNetwork site through pre-event promotions of the tool and as a result the site enjoyed strong participation before, during, and after the event. The site traffic chart below illustrates the popularity of the tool among attendees:

The heart of all introNetwork deployments is the information entered into the Visual Matching Engine algorithms. The Visual Matching Engine consists of words carefully crafted before the event to reflect the demographics and diversity of the attendees. For their profiles, attendees can choose the words from this list that best describe and categorize themselves.

Pre-event reports allowed the client to get a feel for the kinds of attendees coming to the event. Post-event reports also allowed the client to determine how well the supplied list of descriptive words for attendee profiles accurately reflected the makeup of the attendee population.

This information can also be viewed in Excel using the one-click download administrative feature:

By analyzing these charts the client was able to get a picture of the audience that was otherwise unavailable. This information helped to inform event staff and session speakers about possible adjustments to content based on their new insight into attendee preferences.

Attendee demographics (by country) were also captured:

Working directly with the client's event staff, introNetworks helped to craft questions that were presented to attendees in their profiles. These questions, called Conversation Starters, gave the attendees insight into each other's lives and provided the client with valuable business information.

Example question: How do you spend the majority of your day?

These questions were specifically designed to facilitate communication between the attendees who needed help and those who could offer it. It also provided the client with detailed information about attendees. For example, if the client wished to find new speakers for next year's event, they merely had to search for attendees who identified themselves as "experts."

The introNetworks system also offered fully programmable open-ended questions for attendees. This gave attendees complete freedom of expression and provided an opportunity for the client to ask more interesting questions and receive more interesting answers.

This particular question had over 570 attendees respond:

What is a recent project you are proud of?

The client also took advantage of this type of question to ask how to improve the event:

What is one thing you would add to this event?

The introNetwork system also has a Discussion Forum section that gives attendees a place to talk to speakers, read messages from event staff and post issues relevant to the conference. The client was able to download all of these forums for analysis after the event. Reports also showed how many threads and posts had been created in each category of discussion (these categories were defined by the client):

The introNetwork system also gave the client a set of pre-defined database searches that were used to communicate with attendees via email. Here is a list of the types of searches that were supplied by default:

The client was also able to create custom searches and send customized messages as needed.

All in all, there were over 2300 completed profiles in the introNetwork system. Over 50% of attendees participated. In addition:

• Users logged in an average of almost 6 times and spent an average of 8.5 minutes on the site.
• Over 2800 messages were sent between attendees.
• Of the Top 50 Users, the top ten logged in more than 100 times.
• Of the Top 50 Messagers, the top ten sent more than 30 messages.
• Of the Top 50 Posters (to the Forums), the top ten posted more than 10 times.

The introNetwork system was able to provide a multi-dimensional return on investment by both enhancing the attendee experience and by providing this client with invaluable and easy-to-interpret information, metrics, and statistics about their attendees.