As of today, exhibitors and visitors at virtual.drupa can connect in the Networking Plaza: https://virtual.drupa.com/en/Networking_Plaza/Matchmaking.

Due to an intelligent matchmaking tool, they can find companies and contacts that are relevant to their business – and accordingly boost their network building and generate new, valuable leads even before the trade show starts. In the Networking Plaza, participants can also already make appointments in virtual meeting rooms for the trade fair duration from April 20 - 23, 2021, in order to be optimally prepared for virtual.drupa.

Find relevant contacts
To participate in matchmaking, visitors must create an additional personal profile in the Networking Plaza during registration. Exhibitor personnel has to be invited by the company’s main booth contact. The more precise and detailed the personal information on activities and interests in the matchmaking profile, the better participants can benefit from the networking options and the more likely they are to find the contacts they are looking for.

On this basis, the tool makes initial suggestions about companies and users who meet the set search criteria. The participant then has the option of inviting them for a meeting, marking them as interesting or irrelevant. The intelligent algorithm learns from these actions and thus suggests ever more suitable contacts.

Anyone who has already discovered interesting products and services in the Exhibition Space or one of the numerous exhibitor Live Web Sessions can also contact exhibitors directly to arrange meetings. Companies and contact persons can be found quickly and easily in Matchmaking via a search field function – and there is also the option of targeted communication via the exhibitors' online showroom in the Exhibition Space.

Personal exchange via virtual meetings
Relevant contacts can first be saved on an interest list in Matchmaking in order to contact them later or to arrange an appointment. This way, participants can first get an overview before scheduling their meetings. Afterwards, the pre-marked contacts can be invited to an individual meeting in a virtual meeting room. In the matchmaking calendar, participants can find an overview of personal appointments and – for exhibitors – also those of their team colleagues. Here it is possible to enter availabilities in order to organize meetings with larger numbers of participants if needed.

Exhibitor representatives, who are added by their company’s main booth contact and thus linked with each other, have additional options in the team area to organize their contact requests and appointments as effectively as possible. They can coordinate with colleagues or take over appointments from each other. In the shared exhibitor account, new leads are listed in their entirety and contacts are recorded.

Easy participation, great benefit
When registering for virtual.drupa, visitors can activate their participation in Matchmaking at the same time. This means that the initial settings from the virtual.drupa profile are automatically transferred to the Matchmaking profile. Company information of exhibitor representatives is automatically copied when invited by the company’s main booth contact. After successful registration, matchmaking can be used via the browser and also via the drupa app to effectively connect with the community.

Matchmaking is activated in the Networking Plaza from now on until October 2021 to offer exhibitors and visitors maximum exchange and added value and to give them the opportunity to familiarize themselves with the various functionalities already now.

For information on visiting or exhibiting at virtual.drupa 2021, contact Messe Düsseldorf North America; Telephone: (312) 781-5180; E-mail: [email protected]; Visit https://virtual.drupa.com/ and www.mdna.com; Follow us on twitter at http://twitter.com/mdnachicago