Field Notes
Original research on event networking
Frameworks, field-tested tactics and hard-won insights on how event organisers can build networking that attendees actually remember. New posts every week.
All Field Notes posts
Bizzabo alternative: matchmaking depth without buying the whole platform
Bizzabo builds networking into a full event platform. If what you need is sharp, explained matching alongside the tools you already use, here's the head-to-head.
By Cate Trotter · Co-founder and Product Lead, All Along
Read the postCvent alternative: focused attendee matchmaking without the platform overhead
Cvent does everything - and asks for weeks, budget and a team to do it. If all you need is for attendees to meet the right people, here's the honest comparison.
By Cate Trotter · Co-founder and Product Lead, All Along
Read the postSkool alternative: the member matching Skool leaves to the directory
Skool keeps it simple - and leaves discovery to the feed. If you want the right members actually introduced, here's the matching layer that sits on top.
By Cate Trotter · Co-founder and Product Lead, All Along
Read the postMighty Networks alternative: explained member matching across your community and events
Mighty Networks suggests people who look similar. If you want the right members actually introduced - with a reason, and events covered too - here's how it compares.
By Cate Trotter · Co-founder and Product Lead, All Along
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The case for transparent event matchmaking
If an attendee asks why they were paired with someone, an organiser who cannot answer has a product problem, not a communication problem.
By Cate Trotter · Co-founder and Product Lead, All Along
Read the postHivebrite alternative: the member matching layer your community platform is missing
Hivebrite is a full community home - directory, events, fundraising. If members never search the directory, here's the matching layer that sits alongside it.
By Cate Trotter · Co-founder and Product Lead, All Along
Read the postDonut alternative: community matching that explains every introduction
Donut pairs people in Slack on a schedule. If you want members to know why they've been introduced - and one tool that covers events too - here's how it compares.
By Cate Trotter · Co-founder and Product Lead, All Along
Read the postSwapcard alternative: focus on matchmaking, not feature bloat
Swapcard does everything - registration, ticketing, streaming, matchmaking. If matchmaking is the part you actually care about, here's the trade-off.
By Cate Trotter · Co-founder and Product Lead, All Along
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What coworking already knows about curated introductions
The coworking industry decided years ago that introductions are the job. It just does them by hand. Here is what events and communities can borrow.
By Cate Trotter · Co-founder and Product Lead, All Along
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Leadership loneliness is the design brief events keep missing
The most senior people in the room are also the loneliest. That is a design brief, not a wellbeing post. Here is what I do with it.
By Cate Trotter · Co-founder and Product Lead, All Along
Read the postCircle alternative: intelligent member matching, not just a community space
Circle is a great community home, but connecting is left to the member. Here's how All Along adds proactive, explained matching alongside it - and to your events.
By Cate Trotter · Co-founder and Product Lead, All Along
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Event networking by event type: one framework, six formats
One networking format does not fit six different kinds of event. Three questions that tell you the design any event type actually needs.
By Cate Trotter · Co-founder and Product Lead, All Along
Read the postBrella alternative: smarter matchmaking without the setup complexity
Brella drives quality 1:1 meetings, but only after days of category and intent setup. Here's how All Along compares when your time is the constraint.
By Cate Trotter · Co-founder and Product Lead, All Along
Read the postintros.ai alternative: community matching that explains every introduction
intros.ai automates scheduled intros inside a community. If you want members to know why they've been matched - and one tool that covers events too - read this.
By Cate Trotter · Co-founder and Product Lead, All Along
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Festival style corporate event ideas (without the chaos)
Corporate events are quietly turning into festivals - multi-stage, multi-lounge, parallel tracks. The format is great. The networking is usually where it falls over.
By Cate Trotter · Co-founder and Product Lead, All Along
Read the postGrip alternative: why event organisers choose All Along for smart matchmaking
Grip is built for big, complex trade shows. If attendee matchmaking is the job you're judged on, here's an honest head-to-head with All Along.
By Cate Trotter · Co-founder and Product Lead, All Along
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Member retention strategies that actually keep members
Most member retention strategies treat retention as a renewal problem. The ones that work treat it as a friendship problem - and design accordingly.
By Cate Trotter · Co-founder and Product Lead, All Along
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Member engagement ideas that actually retain members
Most member engagement ideas measure activity. The ones that actually retain people measure connection - to each other, not to the platform.
By Cate Trotter · Co-founder and Product Lead, All Along
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The connection gap: events rank networking first, fund it last
Planners say peer connection is the number one thing that makes an event work. Then they give it almost none of the programme. That gap is the whole story.
By Cate Trotter · Co-founder and Product Lead, All Along
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Fintech conference networking: a playbook
A fintech conference is a deal room with a stage attached. Most are run as if the stage is the point. Here is the playbook I would write instead.
By Cate Trotter · Co-founder and Product Lead, All Along
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How to build the business case for event networking
Networking gets cut first because organisers pitch it as a vibe, not a business. Here's the case I write when a CFO is sharpening the red pen.
By Cate Trotter · Co-founder and Product Lead, All Along
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What attendees actually want from event networking
Ask an organiser what attendees want and you get one answer. Ask the attendees and you get a different one. The gap between the two is where most networking programmes quietly underperform.
By Cate Trotter · Co-founder and Product Lead, All Along
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Panel discussion audience engagement that actually works
Most panel Q&A is a microphone race that ends with one question and three speeches. The fix has more to do with what happens before the panel than what happens during it.
By Alex Shiell · Co-founder and GTM Lead, All Along
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Forced networking doesn't work. Here's what does instead
The industry just said out loud that forced networking has failed. I think that is the most useful thing it has admitted in years.
By Cate Trotter · Co-founder and Product Lead, All Along
Read the postb2match alternative: matchmaking that explains every meeting and runs your events too
b2match runs a full meeting diary, with the matching rules left to you. If you want a reason on every match and one engine for events and community, here's the head-to-head.
By Cate Trotter · Co-founder and Product Lead, All Along
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Professional networking after hybrid working: the new geography
The cohort that buys conference tickets is now the cohort least likely to be in the office. That changes what the conference is for, and most organisers are still pricing it like 2019.
By Cate Trotter · Co-founder and Product Lead, All Along
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How unconferences make networking the agenda
Most events bolt networking onto the side of the agenda. The unconference format puts it on the table - the conversation happens inside the agenda creation itself.
By Cate Trotter · Co-founder and Product Lead, All Along
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Networking tools for academic conferences: what to look for
Academic conferences are not just smaller corporate events. The networking tools that work for trade shows usually don't survive contact with a programme committee.
By Alex Shiell · Co-founder and GTM Lead, All Along
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Why your small conference needs a different networking strategy
Small conferences keep copying big-event playbooks and wasting their best advantage. The networking strategy that fits a room of 200 looks nothing like the one that fits 5,000.
By Cate Trotter · Co-founder and Product Lead, All Along
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Speed networking software: what to look for before you buy
Speed networking software looks easy on a demo and brutal on the day. Here's the short list of things I check before recommending one.
By Alex Shiell · Co-founder and GTM Lead, All Along
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Speed networking rotation spreadsheet: the operator's template
Speed networking lives or dies on the rotation spreadsheet. Here's the operator's template I use - the three columns it sits on, the round-length maths, and the no-show plan.
By Alex Shiell · Co-founder and GTM Lead, All Along
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How to use AI for event networking: three concrete use cases
AI tools for event networking are loud right now. Most aren't worth the licence cost. Three use cases organisers can actually pilot.
By Alex Shiell · Co-founder and GTM Lead, All Along
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Smart networking for events: from luck to design
Most organisers treat networking as a logistics problem. Smart networking treats it as a design problem - and it has five layers, not one.
By Cate Trotter · Co-founder and Product Lead, All Along
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Simple event networking tool: the five jobs it must do
Most organisers do not need a 47-feature platform. They need a tool that does five jobs well. Here are the five jobs - and how to spot a tool that has quietly added another forty.
By Alex Shiell · Co-founder and GTM Lead, All Along
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Networking event planning checklist: a 60-day calendar
A planning checklist isn't a magic spell. It forces the networking decisions to be made before the agenda gets locked in - which is the only point they're still free.
By Alex Shiell · Co-founder and GTM Lead, All Along
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Bleisure event networking: design for the day after the agenda
The agenda ended on Friday. The connections people remember happened over Saturday breakfast. Most organisers don't even know that's where the event went.
By Alex Shiell · Co-founder and GTM Lead, All Along
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Structured networking for introverts: design that works
Open-floor networking is designed for the people who least need it. The fix isn't a separate quiet room - it's a different design for the whole programme.
By Cate Trotter · Co-founder and Product Lead, All Along
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How to design a networking event feedback form
Most post-event feedback forms ask the wrong questions at the wrong time, then learn nothing about networking. Here is the form I use instead.
By Alex Shiell · Co-founder and GTM Lead, All Along
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How to create serendipitous networking at events
Most organisers leave the best moments to chance. The events with the most serendipitous networking are the ones where serendipity has been carefully engineered.
By Cate Trotter · Co-founder and Product Lead, All Along
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Infrastructure summit networking: a playbook
Infrastructure summits run multi-billion-pound project pipelines through their delegate lists. Most still treat networking like a coffee break. Here is the playbook I would write.
By Cate Trotter · Co-founder and Product Lead, All Along
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How to plan a B2B matchmaking event that delivers meetings
Most events bolt networking on. A B2B matchmaking event makes the meetings the agenda - and runs on data the organiser collected weeks before anyone arrived.
By Alex Shiell · Co-founder and GTM Lead, All Along
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Attendee match cards: a one-page template for matchmaking events
A match card is the cheapest, sharpest tool for running an attendee matchmaking event. Here's what goes on one - and a template you can use this week.
By Alex Shiell · Co-founder and GTM Lead, All Along
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How to increase exhibitor ROI at events - the three levers that move the needle
Exhibitors don't lose money because their booths are too small. They lose money because the room is opaque, the meetings are random and the follow-up never happens. Here's the fix.
By Alex Shiell · Co-founder and GTM Lead, All Along
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How to actually increase event attendee engagement
Engagement is not a vibe and it is not gamification. It is five levers that move whether attendees show up, talk to each other and come back.
By Cate Trotter · Co-founder and Product Lead, All Along
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How to improve event networking when it isn't working yet
If attendee feedback on your networking is thin, the problem usually isn't 'more mingling time'. Six specific levers move the needle - and most organisers don't touch them.
By Cate Trotter · Co-founder and Product Lead, All Along
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Event networking software: what actually drives adoption
Most event networking software is judged on its feature list. The good ones win on rollout, not the demo. Here's what actually moves the adoption number.
By Alex Shiell · Co-founder and GTM Lead, All Along
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Event networking platform: three questions before you buy
Most platform decisions are made on feature grids and unmade in implementation. Three questions separate a platform worth signing from one that will quietly bruise your team for a year.
By Cate Trotter · Co-founder and Product Lead, All Along
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Why 70% of your attendees won't come back (and what actually changes that)
The average event keeps just 30% of its attendees year-on-year. If networking is the number one reason people come back, most events are losing the fight before it starts.
By Cate Trotter · Co-founder and Product Lead, All Along
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How to run a speed networking event that actually works
Speed networking only works when the pairing logic, round length and pre-event prep match the people in the room. Get any of those three wrong and you end up with a handshake reel.
By Cate Trotter · Co-founder and Product Lead, All Along
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Curated networking: random, facilitated, or designed
'Curated' is becoming the word every event invitation uses and most events mean something different by it. A practical definition, and when curation is actually the wrong answer.
By Cate Trotter · Co-founder and Product Lead, All Along
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Twelve conference networking ideas that actually work
Every organiser I know keeps a list of networking ideas they've stolen from other events. This is mine - twelve of them, grouped by the moment they belong in.
By Cate Trotter · Co-founder and Product Lead, All Along
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Event networking app: what makes attendees actually use it
Apps are bought on feature grids and judged on adoption. The gap between what's demoed and what attendees actually use is where most networking apps quietly lose.
By Alex Shiell · Co-founder and GTM Lead, All Along
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Conference icebreaker questions: the printable PDF list
I keep a short list of icebreaker questions on my phone and hand a printed copy to every facilitator I work with. Here it is.
By Cate Trotter · Co-founder and Product Lead, All Along
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Corporate event networking: four events, four playbooks
One networking format does not fit four different corporate events. A framework for matching the design to the business reason the event exists.
By Cate Trotter · Co-founder and Product Lead, All Along
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Corporate networking event ideas that actually work
Most 'networking ideas' lists are built for HR away-days. Here are ten formats I've watched produce real corporate conversations - and three that reliably do not.
By Alex Shiell · Co-founder and GTM Lead, All Along
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The conference attendee engagement strategy most teams skip
Most event teams do not actively manage engagement. The ones that do treat it as a system from registration to follow-up, not a vibe.
By Cate Trotter · Co-founder and Product Lead, All Along
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How to run a conference roundtable that actually works
Most conference roundtables end up as a panel arranged in a circle. Four things make the difference between a slot on the agenda and an hour people actually remember.
By Alex Shiell · Co-founder and GTM Lead, All Along
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Five B2B networking session formats that actually work
B2B buyers want a different kind of conversation. Five session formats that let them have it - and one that quietly underperforms every time.
By Cate Trotter · Co-founder and Product Lead, All Along
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The post-event follow-up email most organisers send is wrong
The post-event email is the cheapest part of the whole event and the part most teams put the least thought into. It is also where most of the networking value quietly leaks away.
By Alex Shiell · Co-founder and GTM Lead, All Along
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Hybrid event networking - why most of it fails and what actually works
Most hybrid event networking fails because the in-person room treats virtual attendees as a broadcast audience. Fix the measurement first, and the format choices get easier.
By Cate Trotter · Co-founder and Product Lead, All Along
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How to design event networking icebreakers that actually work
Most event icebreakers solve the organiser's anxiety problem, not the attendee's. Here are the formats that actually hold up.
By Cate Trotter · Co-founder and Product Lead, All Along
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Event matchmaking software: judging match quality not features
Most shortlists for event matchmaking software get built on the wrong grid. Here's the short test I run instead - on client events, and on our own product.
By Alex Shiell · Co-founder and GTM Lead, All Along
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Why event networking matters more now than it used to
Meetings per person are up. Meeting length is down. Conferences are now the longest block of peer attention most professionals get all year, and most organisers still treat the networking around them as a side dish.
By Cate Trotter · Co-founder and Product Lead, All Along
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How to design an event agenda that makes networking possible
Most conference agendas are built for content consumption and then labelled 'networking-friendly'. That is not the same thing as a networking-friendly agenda.
By Alex Shiell · Co-founder and GTM Lead, All Along
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Speaker selection is a networking decision, not a marketing one
Programme teams pick speakers for ticket sales. The speakers who actually produce the most networking value in the room are usually a different set entirely.
By Cate Trotter · Co-founder and Product Lead, All Along
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The first hour of a conference matters more than the keynote
Most organisers pour their best thinking into the keynote. First-time attendees have usually made up their minds about your event long before the speaker walks on stage.
By Alex Shiell · Co-founder and GTM Lead, All Along
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How to tell if your event networking actually worked
Most organisers judge their networking by how it felt in the room. That method tells you almost nothing useful.
By Cate Trotter · Co-founder and Product Lead, All Along
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Trade show networking fails - and it is not the booths' fault
Trade show organisers treat the show floor as the centre of the universe. The conversations that actually drive trade show value tend to happen in the rooms nobody puts on the floor plan.
By Alex Shiell · Co-founder and GTM Lead, All Along
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Which event session formats actually generate real conversations
Not all session formats are created equal. Some produce genuine conversation. Others quietly shut it down while everyone nods politely. The research is clearer than you might think.
By Cate Trotter · Co-founder and Product Lead, All Along
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How to plan a networking event that people actually remember
Most networking events follow the same script: pack people into a room, hand them a drink, and hope. Here's what actually works.
By Alex Shiell · Co-founder and GTM Lead, All Along
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Why your big conference needs micro networking events
Big conferences lose people in the crowd. The fix is not a bigger room - it is five smaller ones. The micro networking events I keep seeing organisers under-use.
By Alex Shiell · Co-founder and GTM Lead, All Along
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Why the coffee break is where event networking goes to die
The coffee break is the one part of every conference agenda I have never seen an organiser defend. And yet it is still the main way most events try to make networking happen.
By Cate Trotter · Co-founder and Product Lead, All Along
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Inclusive networking ideas every organiser should run
Most events are quietly designed for the loudest 20%. Five inclusive networking ideas that work for the rest - and the rest is most of your room.
By Cate Trotter · Co-founder and Product Lead, All Along
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Business networking event software: what to look for
Most shortlists for business networking event software are built on features, not outcomes. Here's the short list I actually work from.
By Alex Shiell · Co-founder and GTM Lead, All Along
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Optical trade show matchmaking: the buyer-first playbook
Optical and eyewear shows are a matchmaking format pretending to be a trade show. Here is how I would run the buyer diary if I were programming one tomorrow.
By Alex Shiell · Co-founder and GTM Lead, All Along
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How to use audience insights for events: a practical guide
Most audience insights work at events stops at a demographic breakdown. That's where the problem starts - not where the answer is.
By Cate Trotter · Co-founder and Product Lead, All Along
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What attendee matchmaking actually means
Attendee matchmaking isn't a fancy word for networking. It's a quieter, more specific discipline - and most events still haven't noticed the difference.
By Cate Trotter · Co-founder and Product Lead, All Along
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Attendee interest survey questions that produce matchable data
Most registration forms ask who attendees are. The ones that produce great networking ask what they actually want.
By Alex Shiell · Co-founder and GTM Lead, All Along
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How does AI event matchmaking actually work?
Most organisers aren't sure what AI matchmaking does differently to a spreadsheet filter. Here's how it actually works.
By Cate Trotter · Co-founder and Product Lead, All Along
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How to network effectively: a calmer, more human guide to real professional connections
Most 'how to network effectively' advice treats it as a performance. It isn't. It's a small, repeatable habit - and the people who treat it that way end up with the strongest networks.
By Cate Trotter · Co-founder and Product Lead, All Along
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What event sponsors actually want - and why most organisers can't give it to them
Sponsors are asking harder questions. Most organisers can't answer them. Here's what sponsors actually want and how to deliver it.
By Alex Shiell · Co-founder and GTM Lead, All Along
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How to make event networking work for introverts (and everyone else)
Walk into most networking events and you'll see the same scene: a handful of confident people working the room, and a larger group feeling uncomfortable. Your event is failing them.
By Cate Trotter · Co-founder and Product Lead, All Along
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Why networking is the reason members join - and the reason they quietly leave
Networking is the top reason members join. Most events leave it to chance. That gap is costing associations more than they realise.
By Alex Shiell · Co-founder and GTM Lead, All Along
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What your registration form already knows about your audience
Most organisers treat registration as a logistics tool. The ones who get great results read it as an intelligence brief.
By Alex Shiell · Co-founder and GTM Lead, All Along
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Why your event networking should start before day one
Organisers treat networking as something that happens at coffee breaks. The research says the opposite: the best connections start weeks before the venue opens.
By Cate Trotter · Co-founder and Product Lead, All Along
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Why your event networking tool isn't delivering
Most organisers invest in better tools than ever and still watch attendees cluster with people they already know. The problem isn't the tool. It's something much simpler.
By Cate Trotter · Co-founder and Product Lead, All Along
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The perception gap killing your event networking results
78% of organisers believe their event delivers memorable moments. Only 40% of attendees agree. That 38-point gap explains why your repeat bookings are flat.
By Alex Shiell · Co-founder and GTM Lead, All Along
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