twine is a roulette-style, professional networking application designed to blend seamlessly into any virtual event.
In deploying twine, your goal is to design an experience that is consistent with your business goals.
For example, if your goal is speed networking and rapid new connections, short conversations and easy conversation starters are likely the way to go. If your goal is the human connection amongst a distributed team or deep discussion of a complex domain, you may want to try longer conversation durations and more thought-provoking conversation starters.
Because the twine is a multiplayer experience, you will want to promote it in advance to your guests. Here are some helpful tips to make your twine run smoothly.
Getting Started!
First, the basics. twine is built for the modern web browser, meaning that anyone with a laptop/desktop or tablet can participate. Here are a few best practices:
twine runs best on Chrome, Firefox, Safari, and modern versions of Microsoft Edge.
VPNs can block users from joining the experience unless twine IP addresses are previously whitelisted. It’s best to advise your guest to turn their VPNs off prior to using twine. See this helpful article for more information: https://twine.link/it-help
When handing off from Zoom (or similar services), it’s VERY IMPORTANT to hard-mute guests and ask them to turn their Zoom camera off once the twine begins. An unmuted Zoom guest can disrupt your community's twine conversation if the Zoom remains open during the twine. Pro tip: You can enable "Mute All Participants" as they join to ensure a quality experience for everyone
Learn more here
Timing is Key!
Start Time / End Time
The Start Time / End Time settings dictate when the networking room will be available to guests, and when the twine matching algorithm will start running. If a guest joins the Room outside of the window, they will receive a message telling them to come back later.
🔑 The best practice is to identify a couple of 30-60 minute windows for networking within your event agenda so that none of your guests are left out.
Conversation Duration
The Conversation Duration setting is used to establish how long each twine conversation will be within a particular networking Room. This setting supports Conversations as short as one minute or as long as 59 minutes; in practice, a range of 5-12 minutes is advised, based on the business goals of the experience.
🔑 5-minute rounds are appropriate for speed networking environments, while 12-minute rounds are more appropriate for complex topics and conversations.
Agenda!
For maximum visibility of your session, we recommend including a dedicated time slot within your agenda for twine. Making sure your guest are focused on twine, will provide a better experience for all.
Here are a few best practices to keep in mind;
Carve out a dedicated time on your agenda for networking. If you schedule conflicting activities or agenda options, your participation will go down.
Look to ensure VIP or Executive participation. The presence of a VIP or Exec will go viral, and ensure high levels of participation among your attendee base.
It’s a good idea to make sure that the twine networking link is available in multiple places; include it in your session details, in your calendar invites, and even in your Zoom chat (if applicable).
Promotion and Distribution
Here are a couple of twine configurations that we have seen show great success:
twine as a standalone event: distribution and promotion are handled via calendar invite, with a prominent link to the networking room.
Zoom (or comparable system) to twine handoff: In this configuration, the “opening act” (panel, presentation, etc.) is delivered over Zoom, followed by a handoff to twine, typically by dropping the Networking Room link into the Zoom chat. It is critical that you mute attendees and ask them to turn off their zoom cameras prior to starting the twine networking.
Embedded twines. twine offers embed code, allowing the networking to run within virtually any virtual event platform, without forcing attendees to open a new browser.
Looking to add more incentives to have users join? See this article on promotion best practices.