Here is one of the most remarkable meetings I have designed so far. With the following simple tools:
- A rolling table that could move throughout the entire Congress space, available for the 2,500 participants from all over the world
- Covered with an orange table cloth
- Manned by me, the facilitator
- Helped by 9 story cubes (the “Dialogue Dice”)
- A dice board
- And the starting question: “Are you here to network and meet new people? Yes? Then please join me!”
During the three days of the event, around 500 participants from 45 different countries stopped over at my table to chat with each other. Each round in groups of 4 or 5. I simply invited them with the starting question you read just now and once they were in, they helped me get hold of other networkers. Until the table was full. Then we started.
In turn, they said their names, rolled the Dialogue Dice, chose three images from the nine that emerged and used these to explain what they had come to the Congress for - the International Congress for the fight against cancer. In around 10 minutes, they all got a turn and discovered shares interests. Which is what networking is all about, right?
The Dialogue Dice format was developed for UICC, the International Union for the Fight against Cancer, and used during their bi-annual Congress in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. UICC’s remit was to help participants with the networking and ensure that as many of them as possible would meet new fellow-participants. For the occasion, Orange Gibbon’s Mike van der Vijver was temporarily named “Chief Networking Officer”, the first-ever.
This case provided by Mike van der Vijver, the leading Meeting Designer of Orange Gibbon Ltd.
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