For some, the experience of a networking event can mean only speaking with people you already know or making random contact with others you have nothing in common with.
Hoping to provide a more meaningful networking experience, Wilton resident Oji Udezue is developing a new smartphone app that allows users to see the LinkedIn profiles of event attendees.
Rather than striking up a conversation with whoever is nearest, Intermingl allows users to seek out individuals by career field, company, position, education or interests. Then, instead of spending the first minutes of a conversation with introductions, attendees can dive into thoughtful questions or discussion, Udezue said.
Through the app, users can instantly connect on LinkedIn with information about the event automatically added into the contact. It also includes the option of adding personal notes or photos.
“You”™ll have less of a random experience,” Udezue said. “Instead of taking a business card home, putting it in a drawer and perhaps forgetting who the person is once you find it again, it”™s very easy to go back and relive the context and space you met someone.”
Udezue previously worked as a product manager at Microsoft Corp. and Bridgewater Associates in Westport.
A part of a series of user experiments, members of the Business Council of Fairfield County”™s Young Professionals Network (YPN) used the app during a January networking event at an AmeriCares facility in Stamford.
Before listening to a presentation on how AmeriCares is able to deliver humanitarian aid across the globe, event attendees first used the app to seek out relevant contacts.
Keith Reynolds, a YPN director, said he invited Udezue to the event as a way to help support the tech entrepreneurial community. An app like Udezue”™s could give young professionals an equal footing at networking events where they might otherwise not know who to talk to.
Though Intermingl is still in its early stages, Reynolds said he believed the app was a “simple and elegant” solution to building a network, especially for young professionals who are more suited to using technology in social situations.
“Younger people are used to using smartphones,” Reynolds said. “They”™re right at the formative stages of their careers and this just brings their professional networking into a behavior they already do.
“Good technology enables behaviors people already do and doesn”™t necessarily change how people work or behave,” he added.
Unlike many other phone apps, however, there is a tangible revenue stream connected to Intermingl. While users may use and download the app for free, event planners must pay a fee to set up a platform for event attendees to use. The fee also includes access to data on how many connections were made and demographic information about the people who attended, like gender, age or career stage.
“It tells you what you accomplished in an event,” Udezue said. “That”™s a powerful pitch for future events if you can tell people what they will get out of it. Many are willing to pay for that kind of service.”
Udezue said he is in the beginning stages of seeking seed capital, though most of the design process is already complete. He expects to launch the final version of the app by the middle of the year.
That sounds pretty cool! Is there a Windows phone version of it?