Navigating a crowded networking event can be a challenge. With dozens or hundreds of people in a room, how can you know for sure that you're making the best connections and talking to the right folks?
You could do research ahead of time and make a list of all the people you want to talk with--and constantly have your head buried in your phone trying to match faces with LinkedIn profiles--or you could let Chicago-based startup Proxfinity do the connecting for you.
Proxfinity, which officially launched this week, is a wearable smart badge for professional networking events that connects people with shared interests who are close to each other in a room. Prior to the event, attendees answer a set of questions about why they're attending, who they want to talk to, and what they want to talk about. The answers are loaded onto the person's smart badge--which attaches to a person's lanyard or jacket--and Proxfinity's matching algorithm connects people that have the most in common.
Using a radius of 15 feet, the badge identifies two people who are likely to have shared interests. Your badge lights up with the initials of the person you connected with, and vice versa. The badge also lights up in one of four corners to indicate the topic that you both have in common, based on the type of networking event.
For example, at a Chicago networking event the smart badge could connect someone looking to sell a certain technology with a person looking to buy that technology. At a more informal event, it could link up two people who both like to volunteer. The idea is that Proxfinity takes the guessing game out of networking, and it keeps your phone in your pocket to better facilitate a face-to-face interaction.
"Our product lends to more serendipitous networking connections," said Co-Founder Christine Hutchison. "They are natural connections."
"We're taking the work out of networking."
Proxfinity leases the hardware to event organizers and professional networking events, who then hand out the smart badges to attendees. The product was beta tested this fall at events like the National Association of Women Business Owners and 1871's Momentum Awards VIP reception, and Hutchison says the startup plans to focus on mostly corporate events--like new employee trainings that look to accelerate the "get to know you" process by connecting like-minded people.
Proxfinity has been issued two patents for its technology, which works without beacons or bluetooth and doesn't need cellular connectivity to communicate with other smart badges.
But in addition to providing a smarter networking experience, Proxfinity is also giving data to the event organizer on things like how many connections were made, what topics they talked about, and for how long. And for the attendee, Proxfinity has an accompanying app that allows people to automatically share contact information following the face-to-face interaction.
"We wanted to create something that brought back face-to-face interaction. We wanted to create something that got people talking again," Hutchison said. "We are solving a problem to better help [event organizers] create engagement for their live events."
Hutchison said the product is already getting interest from organizations across the world, and they're ready to deploy the smart badges to everything from college career fairs to holiday parties. Down the road, Hutchison said the technology could be used beyond the corporate setting at places like concerts.
"We see this really being a global product," she said. "The networking smart badge is just the first in a line of a platform of products that all connect people based on proximity and affinity."
