9 New Ideas for Member Networking Meetups
Members are craving conversations with people outside their home and remote office. They’d love regular opportunities to get together with other members—once or twice a year during a conference is not enough.
Find Out What Kind of Conversations Members Want
The conversation challenge right now is virtual fatigue. You want your networking meetups to attract a member’s interest—not elicit an “Ugh, not another Zoom” response.
Find out what activities would capture their attention but don’t rely solely on volunteer feedback. Volunteers are already bought in. They always show up. Instead, you want feedback from a wide range of members. Different segments want different things. Members in their 30s with kids have to work around school schedules while older members might be more flexible.
Send out a brief survey that allows open-ended responses. Use all your distribution channels: blast emails, newsletters, social media, online community and the members-only website or member portal. Request ideas for:
- Virtual meetup activities—what they’ve enjoyed or seen elsewhere
- Discussion topics
- Types of members they want to meet with—segment types not specific names
- Best times/duration for meetups
9 Ideas for Online Networking Meetups
Approach this venture with an experimental mindset. Some of these ideas might work, some might bomb. Some may take a few tries or tweaks to get going. Request feedback from participants so you can learn what different membership segments like and don’t like.
#1: Purely social chat time
Networking meetups don’t have to be serious. Members want to talk about the latest Netflix series, playoff game, quick dinner recipes and parental challenges. Schedule coffee chats, snack breaks, happy hours and digital dine-arounds, some work-related, some not.
Open these meetups to all members or to specific membership segments, for example:
- Career stage or employment status
- Specialty or job description
- Geographic region
- Demographic
- Volunteer role
- Hobby or interest
Select a few topics in advance or go with no agenda. However, ask someone—staff or volunteer—to facilitate the conversation. Have a handy supply of conversation starters or ice breakers just in case.
#2: Discussion lounges or groups
Naturally, you want to schedule time for “shop talk” too, perhaps biweekly (fortnightly) discussions focused on a hot topic. See what’s trending in your online community or ask for suggestions. Like social meetups, these discussions can be open to all or to specific membership segments.
Post the discussion topic or questions ahead of time. Or ask someone to give a five- to ten-minute presentation to get things going, then attendees can join the discussion. For example, a career coach shares interviewing tips, then leads a discussion about job-hunting challenges.
#3: Book clubs
Schedule monthly discussions on books related to your profession or industry, relevant to work or focused on professional growth. You don’t have to manage the book club. Instead, leave it to a company like Professional Book Club Guru.
#4: Event coffee line
At a conference or educational event, you could always count on meeting people in line at the coffee station before the event started. Give virtual attendees that same opportunity. Host a virtual coffee line before your webinar or virtual conference begins.
Creative Mornings tells registrants ahead of time about their coffee line. They randomly assign early arrivals into ten-minute breakout rooms to enjoy their morning coffee with a small group of fellow attendees.
#5: Committee table talk
The same principle applies to volunteer meetings. In the old days, volunteer leaders who arrived early got to know each other before the chair meeting began. Tell volunteers you’ll open up the web conferencing platform 15 minutes before the meeting and keep it open 15 minutes after the meeting ends.
#6: Solution room or mastermind
ASAE TEC is offering a Situation Room session this year. The description says:
“Chances are, you are not alone seeking answers to the problems you face. This personal advice panel has the experience from all sides of technology—end user, implementer, project manager, and CIO—to help you find the path forward. Walk away with solutions you can use.”
Would your members like participating in something like this?
Another option is a mastermind. Usually masterminds involve the same group of people each month with one person taking the “hot seat” and getting advice from the others, but you could open it to all members.
#7: Learning cohorts
Invite members to participate in a small group who meets before a conference to discuss goals, checks in with each other during the conference, and then acts as an accountability group after the conference so everyone is more likely to apply what they’ve learned.
But you don’t need a conference to run learning cohorts. Learning can be centered around webinars, session recordings, articles, books, videos or podcasts. Create cohorts of members with the same position, specialty, career stage or learning goals. Another option is to facilitate credentialing exam prep or study groups.
#8: Chapter leader groups
Host biweekly or monthly meetups for current chapter leaders and rising chapter leaders—so they’ll have an established network when they take office. Chapter leaders will enjoy sharing successes, seeking advice, and providing support to each other.
Set the agenda for each meeting based on perennial chapter issues or take suggestions from the leaders themselves.
#9: Group mentoring
Group mentoring offers a less intimidating way to get into mentoring by putting less pressure on any one person. With three mentors and three mentees in each group, participants can hear different perspectives, get to know more people of the other generation and share the experience (and responsibility) with their peers.
Some activities aren’t as great for conversation as you might think
During the pandemic, virtual entertainment sessions, like wine tastings and cocktail lessons, have become popular. But what kind of experience is it really? Is it a passive or conversational experience? Know what you want members to get out of the experience so you plan appropriately.
Don’t assume your online community is a networking solution for everyone. Some members won’t participate because they don’t feel qualified to answer or suffer from imposter syndrome. An asynchronous Q&A in an online community is not nearly as riveting as the real-time conversations you can host during online networking meetups
New Mission-Critical Role for Staff and Volunteers
You can’t just throw people together and expect them to have a good experience. Staff and/or volunteer leaders must plan, schedule and facilitate these regular conversations. Make sure you provide an appropriate structure and welcoming experience.
When you understand the goals members hope to achieve through networking and conversations, you can better plan activities and choose technology that will help them achieve those goals.
Come take a tour of The Echo, our virtual events solution, that provides plenty of meeting rooms, lounges and other spaces to host virtual discussions and networking activities along with educational sessions, private meetings and exhibit booths.