Business matchmaking software

Organising a business matchmaking event has two layers. One is strategic and stays with you: who comes, what the theme is, what the ticket costs, what the mood in the room is. The other is operational, repetitive and vulnerable to human error: checking that the design adds up, building the schedule without repeating meetings, keeping time, redoing everything when somebody fails to show.

It is the second layer that software solves. This article explains what Rodada de Sucesso does, in the order you are going to use it.

Before: planning and sizing

The planner takes the number of participants, tables and seats per table, and returns the real grid that combination supports. The rounds come out as a result, not as a number you pick.

The arithmetic behind it is easy to follow. At a table with S seats, each person talks to S minus 1 people per round. For everyone to talk to everyone, you need at least (N minus 1) divided by (S minus 1) rounds, where N is the total number of participants. With 60 people at tables of 6, that is 59 divided by 5, meaning 12 rounds. If you do not have time for 12 rounds, the software shows what the design actually delivers, with a table of alternatives to compare.

There are three formats, chosen in the side bar: Business Matchmaking, Matchmaking with an Anchor, and Paired Meetings. There is also Traditional Matchmaking, with the sequential numbering of the old system, for anyone who already works that way. Recurring events can be turned into Templates and reused.

Registration and importing

Each participant has a number, name, company, role, email, telephone, segment, category, interests, supply, demand, priority, a fixed table for the case of an anchor, restrictions and notes. Companies have their own record, with segment, supply and demand.

The supply and demand fields are not decoration: they are what feeds the building of the tables. An empty record produces a random table.

The list of registrations comes in by importing a spreadsheet in xlsx or csv, with a screen for checking and correcting before saving. It is the difference between typing 80 rows the night before and reviewing 80 rows already filled in.

The restrictions accept direct markers: rodada:1,3 ties someone to specific rounds, and evitar:12,15 prevents unwanted meetings.

Matchmaking and the schedule

The schedule is generated with one hard rule: zero repetition for as long as a new combination is available. The system also avoids putting colleagues from the same company at the same table, which would waste seats.

Every meeting receives a compatibility score from 0 to 100, and the score is explainable. Double-clicking the meeting shows you what made it up: supply cross-referenced with demand, shared interests, segment, priority and history. It is what lets you defend the curation when a participant asks why they sat with a particular company.

The review can be done by table or by round, with search and a marker for a blocked meeting. And the schedule can be cleared and generated again as many times as you want before the event.

Simulation before the day

The simulation compares scenarios side by side: what if eight people are missing, what if twelve extra arrive, what if the anchor cancels. You see the effect of each situation and apply the chosen scenario with a confirmation. It is the rehearsal that avoids a rushed decision in front of a full room.

During the event

The operation screen is where the day happens. It has start and pause, previous and next, restart the clock, go to a specific round, automatic advance, volume and keyboard shortcuts.

The timer works by speaking turn, with an interval between turns and a table change time, all configured in the general data of the event. The audible alerts are configurable by file for the start, the 15-second warning, the change, the break and the close, with a global default and a sound of its own per event, and they can be voice recordings.

The second screen projects the current round, the timer and the instruction for the moment, and shows the table map during the break. The overview of the tables opens full screen with F11 and lets you move between rounds.

Attendance is marked quickly and incidents are recorded with the time and the round. An operational intelligence sweep warns you when there are absences, an absent anchor, a table with only one person or an improper meeting, always with a suggestion.

When someone is missing, the recalculation has two modes: minimum adjustment, which is the default and moves as little as possible, and reoptimise everything. In both, the rounds already held stay untouched. And the state is saved periodically, so that a computer crash does not make you lose the event.

Afterwards: reports and materials

At the end, the indicators show attendance, conversations expected against those held and missed, average compatibility, repetitions, conflicts, table utilisation and how many people each participant met.

There are ten materials in PDF and Excel: running orders, labels and badges, the table map, the participant list, the company list, the attendance list, incidents, the executive report and the registration and schedule spreadsheets. That package is what supports the conversation with a sponsor and with an anchor for the following edition.

System details that matter on the day

The software works offline: the network is used only to activate the licence and to update. That means poor internet in the room does not bring your event down. The licence covers one computer. There is backup and restore in a file of its own, which carries the database and the audio together, and updates are checked manually or every three months, never during an event.

When a spreadsheet is still fine

If your event is small, the build fits into an afternoon and you have never had a repetition, a spreadsheet does the job. The honest comparison between the two paths is in spreadsheet or software for a matchmaking event.

If you have already had a repetition, already spent the night before checking tables or already felt a wave of panic at the thought of somebody not turning up, the problem has stopped being one of organisation. Complete the reading with why matchmaking events fail, how many rounds fit in your event and how to avoid mistakes with intelligent software.