Networking is one of the main reasons people attend business events, conferences, and exhibitions. But simply bringing the right people into the same venue does not guarantee that meaningful connections will happen.
For organizers, the challenge is making event networking easier to navigate while also understanding whether attendees, exhibitors, and sponsors are actually getting value from it.
Bizzabo's 2025 Event Networking Report, based on more than 300 organizers, attendees, and sponsors, found that 87% of event organizers consider networking very important to event success. At the same time, 42% reported low or very low engagement with networking tools.
This gap shows that providing a networking feature alone may not be enough.
One challenge is relevance. At a large event, attendees may have hundreds or even thousands of potential people they could meet. Without enough information about roles, industries, interests, goals, and networking preferences, identifying the right connections can become difficult.
Attendee profiles and business matching can make this process more intentional. Instead of expecting participants to discover relevant contacts entirely on their own, event technology can use participant information to help surface relevant people, companies, and opportunities.
Meeting scheduling adds another layer of structure. Participants can identify potential connections before the event, arrange meetings during it, and spend more of their onsite time having relevant conversations rather than searching for the right people.
For exhibitors and sponsors, better event networking can also support lead generation and business development. Relevant matchmaking can help businesses identify potential prospects, while networking activity gives organizers another way to understand how participants engage beyond sessions and exhibition booths.
How EEX Helps
EEX brings attendee profiles, Business Matching, Meeting Scheduling, and networking activity into the wider event management platform.
Through EEX Business Match, participants can discover relevant people and business opportunities based on event and attendee information. EEX Event Experiences can then support engagement and communication across the participant journey.
Because these interactions take place within the connected EEX ecosystem, networking does not need to exist as an isolated event feature. Organizers can gain better visibility into meetings and attendee engagement while participants have a clearer way to discover and connect with the right people.
The result is event networking that is more intentional for participants and more measurable for organizers.
Source: Bizzabo - 2025 Event Networking Report
https://apiem-ems.com/wp-content/uploads/filr/721/2025%20Event%20Networking%20Report.pdf