Meeting Matching is the technology in EventsAir that lets attendees and exhibitors request appointments with each other. This Express Action is where you actually run the Meeting Matching process which takes into account all the meeting preferences and requests that have been entered by attendees and/or exhibitors, to create the diaries, or schedules of meetings for each person.
Read more about setting up Meeting Matching here.
Running the Meeting Matching Express Action
When you collected meeting preferences from your attendees and exhibitors (as applicable to your event), and reviewed all requests, you're ready to run this Express Action.
You can choose to run Meeting Matching across all contact records at the same time, or in waves based on specific meeting schedules, registration categories or exhibitor categories.
Filter
Press the Filter button next to Target Group to select the group of people you want to work with. If you want everybody, just click Apply without entering any selections.
Scheduled Meetings Options
You have two options prior to running your Meeting Matching process:
- Delete ALL existing Scheduled Meetings before running - select this option ONLY if you want to remove all existing matches and completely start from scratch.
- Attempt to move meetings to another timeslot after initial matching process - select this if you want to keep all current matches, but would like to move them so you can accommodate any new Platinum or Gold preferences.
Advanced Options
Here, you can boost Exhibitor, Attendee or Mutual preferences, to adjust how the meeting matching process will assign meetings. For example, if Attendee Preference Boost is higher than Exhibitor Preference Boost, the process will favor preferences made by attendees over those made by exhibitors.
There are also options to exclude non-mutual preferences for both attendees and exhibitors, so only those who both want to meet with each other (mutual preference) will be matched.
Selected Records tab
After filtering, you can look under the Selected Records tab to see a complete list of the attendees this Express Action will be applied to.
You may see slightly different buttons underneath the list as those that appear in the image above, depending on the Express Action you're using.
- You can use all the Selected Records, or just pick out some from within that list.
- To exclude individual records, manually deselect them. You can select them again to include them if you change your mind.
When you're happy with the list, press the "Start" button to start the Express Action (you can also do this from the Details tab).
Save as Data Snapshot
You’ll see this option under the Selected Records tab.
A Data Snapshot captures, or “remembers” the results of a search or report filter so you can re-use the data later. (If you want to save the filter itself, to search on it again later, use the save filter function.)
Read more about using Data Snapshots in this article.
Note: Save As Data Snapshot saves the results, not the selection criteria. Any Attendees added after you made this selection are NOT included, even if they match your original filter criteria. If you want to save the Selection Criteria (instead of the results), use the Save button inside the Filter screen.
Running the Process
Press Start to create meetings. You will see a progress thermometer at the bottom of the screen while the matching is underway. Once complete, a pop-up message will tell you how many meetings were created.