At free events, participants are matched for a sequence of one-on-one phone-based conversations.  The easiest way to boost attendance at your virtual event is to make it free.  Our free events are free to you and free to your participants.  Free events are suitable when all anticipated event participants have a motivation to attend and don’t need an extra incentive (e.g. money)

For these events, we can customize the user experience for your participants based on whether you need a simple (or non-existent) registration process or whether your participants will be very particular about what sorts of people they are matched with. Simple is often best. In our simplest events, we email login credentials to participants that allow them to join the event without doing any work beforehand. Otherwise, we have the ability to gather complete information from participants on their characteristics and the characteristics of people they do and do not want to be matched with. We can even match participants with specific individuals they request to be matched with.

There are three ways by which event participants can communicate with each other during free events. You choose which works best for your event.

VOIP - During the event, participants will receive phone calls bridging them with participants they are paired with.

PROS: The most user friendly option. Little waiting time between conversations. No dialing required. Does not require downloading/using Skype(TM) or using a PC microphone.

CONS: Costs $0.02 per minute for US participants and more for international participants. Requires that the system have participants’ correct phone numbers. (However, during the event, participants can modify the numbers at which they are called.)

Conference Call - Every participant will be assigned a conference call line. For certain conversations, they will be asked to remain on their own conference call line. For other conversations, they will be shown the conference call credentials of their match and will dial into their match’s line.

PROS: Free. Does not require downloading/using Skype(TM) or using a PC microphone.

CONS: Dialing into different conference call lines may confuse some participants. Participants may take 30 seconds or longer to dial into the conference call lines for each conversation. Requires that international participants call a US number.

Skype(TM) – Each participant will need to have Skype(TM) running using their assigned Skype(TM) credentials and will need to use a PC microphone and speaker. Calls between paired participants will launch automatically.

PROS: Free. Minimal waiting time between conversations. No dialing required.

CONS: Requires use of the Skype(TM) application, PC microphone, and speakers, any one of which may be problematic for for those unfamiliar with Skype(TM).