Prototype 1: In class

Jörgen’s main dissatisfaction with a common entrepreneurial networking event where people in different fields look for potential cooperation or someone with certain expertise for their business ideation was that you can hardly know anything about a person’s background without approaching and chatting with them. Sometimes you could say ‘hi and bye’ to many before finding the one with interesting background.

After a brainstorming with Jörgen, Jonas and Tobias, a few possible solutions have been proposed. One of them was that everyone attending the event shall stick some noticeable labels about themselves to the body, and another one was to prepare simple ‘resumes’ beforehand and send them out as flyers during the event. Jonas even suggests an existing mobile application where guests of a certain networking event can register their photo and information for everyone else at the event to check out.

As I reflected on it later, the desirable solution to this case should enable recognition of people from different fields instantly without showing too detailed information (as a well written resume would do), since whether or not a person is appropriate for cooperation should always be determined via in-person communication. Therefore, the mobile app would also fail to serve our purpose since it will distract people from actually getting involved in the event. The label method is good, but will have the problem of exchanging and recording personal information unless people have their business card at hand.

I went on trying to think of a tool or method that can amend the label method without adding complicated procedures or spoiling the chatting nature of a networking event. And within the a few minutes in class, I decided to take advantage of the paper cups that might be used for a drink during any social event. Everyone can have a cup of different color representing different fields they are expert at ( like green for natural science, yellow for computer science, etc.). And the exchange of information shall be made through something that can be easily attached to the cup, so that the experience of drink and conversation will not be bothered.

Below is my rudimentary prototype 1 that was experienced by my partner (left) and its concept illustration (right).

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The idea is to let people at the networking event be categorised through the color of the specially shaped big cups first, and once two people decided to exchange personal information, they can simply fill in the blanks of a smaller cup and put it underneath the big one. So a person can collect a pile of ‘name cups’ while he walks around the room without having to spare a second hand.

The prototype was tried out during small networking session in class, and developed the following feedback grid:

Prototype 2: New context

Another networking experience context I decided to work on is a career fair or Expo, where different companies or schools exhibit themselves at a stand and people will approach those stands for further information or questions. I have been to such occasions myself, and I am quite displeased by the fact that the popular stands are always too crowded and it would take too long before you can have the conversation with the consultant because the person in front of you is asking questions relentlessly.

I think this problem can be alleviated by two means: one is that the enterprises at the fair should make basic information about themselves more obvious and detailed in their exhibits and brochures, so that people will not have to ask much questions and cause a jam at the stand; another is to limit the time of talking to the consultants for each person. Apparently more can be done to the latter means by me.

My final solution following this means is to give everyone attending the fair a certain amount of ‘Q&A coupon’ as is sketched below. Each sheet of cash represent a time duration like 1 minute, and people must give the consultants the number of coupons equivalent to the time they will have the conversation, which means they must stop asking questions once they run out of coupons.

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+ Very convenient to pile up the cups;

Would make the event more fun; Encourage interaction between people…

— Have to inform everyone of the rules of

what color cups represent; May be difficult to write decently and

quickly on cups?

? Recognising multiple colors at an event may not be a

good idea if the lighting is also colourful

! think of something other than the color that can also be used for categorisation, fun enough and easy to implement (then

the CLOCK idea dawns on me)

This prototype may encourage people at a career fair or Expo to think carefully before they consult, so that the average conversation time will be shortened and so will the queue at the stands. Moreover, two people who are both interested in one enterprise can even communicate about the questions they would like to ask before approach and talk. If they can agree on some mutual questions, they can save some coupons for other stands and the consultants will not be bothered with too many repetitive questions as well.

Since this prototype is not tried out in a real career fair, the feedback grid cannot be completed and is not shown here. However, my partner and me both believes that this can solve our abovementioned problem very well.

Prototype 3: SSES Interdisciplinary Mingle

My prototype for the mingle party follow the same thinking as in prototype 1, i.e. to make the general background of the participants more noticeable in the first place so that participants can have a general choice of the people to converse with depending on their interests and purposes. The difference is that I use a new tool to distinguish people from all fields, which is the CLOCK idea I came up upon finishing prototype 1.

The prototype consists of 2 parts: a big clock face with the numbers replaced by names of disciplines is to be hanged on the wall or shown on the screen of the mingle event; and small clock faces that are to be worn by the participants, as is shown in the sketch below.

The idea is to let each participant draw their own ‘time’ mask by choosing two disciplines that they are most interested in or expert at. Therefore, when people are walking around at the mingle event, they can look for people with desirable ‘time’ to get acquainted with first.

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The prototype was implemented at the mingle party and was quite well received. The pictures and feedback grid from the party are shown below. Since I got my inspiration from Cogsworth (the pendulum clock) from the Disney Movie Beauty and the Beast, the big clock face was drawn just like him. All guests who tried out this prototype and listened to my explanation find this solution a funny and effective way to for people to network more effectively, at least for those who have a strong preference to find certain business partners. One of them, who is a SSES alumni and the founder of Sqore, Gustaf, think it an excellent and attractive idea that people annotate themselves as clocks.

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+ fun, creative way to serve the purpose; process is simple and easy to implement ;

— still have to inform everyone of the rules;

? !can adapt this method for multiple

occasions by letting the clock represent different categorisations.

Postscript: Vote and Reflection

I would vote for Denise’s prototype (the lower left picture on previous page), since the basket full of items will draw people’s attention and the question tag attached to each item is like a ‘Truth or dare’ process which will make the initiating conversation less awkward and make people feel closer. But I also suggest that those questions should be well chosen and may change with the occasions. For example, for a social event where most people are strangers to each other, the questions should be less private; if it is for an event for a gang of scholars, the questions should be more academic.

I think the 3 prototypes I designed during this assignment is all targeted at the networking event as a whole and require the active participation of all guests, which is rather special because I noticed that most others design the networking experience tailored for 1 person only. The advantage of reinventing the form of the networking event like the 3 prototypes is that once it is properly designed and implemented, it can improve the quality of the network event to a larger extent, compared to those solutions experienced by a single person. Also, its innovative and often funny form may attract more people to get involved in the event. The disadvantage with these solutions is that it is harder to control the scene and requires the refinement of the regulations.

Moreover, I may consider designing more digital solutions next time since mobile devices and applications are quite prevalent these days, and the fact that I study wireless communications myself. :)

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