Identity adds three profile fields to matchmaking: a persona, an industry and a function. Attendees pick one value for each during onboarding. The persona shows on their profile card, all three work as filters in People, and a shared industry raises an attendee in another attendee's match list.
The three lists describe different things:
Persona is the attendee's role at your event, such as Startup, Investor or Corporate.
Industry is their company's sector, such as FinTech or SaaS.
Function is their area of work, such as Sales, Marketing or Product.
For example, a startup founder working on a software product might choose Startup, SaaS and Product. Use options that fit your audience.
Before you start
You need to be an organization admin or an event admin.
Matchmaking must be set up. Attendees see the identity fields only when both Enable matchmaking and Enable identity are on.
Warning: Importing an identity CSV file replaces all three lists. Every persona, industry or function that is not in the file is deleted and cleared from the profile of every attendee who had chosen it. The admin panel empties the lists before it sends the file, so a file that fails to import leaves the lists empty. This can't be undone. After attendees have joined, edit the lists on the Identity tab instead: renaming an item keeps attendees' choices.
Where to find it
Matchmaking > Settings in the admin panel to turn identity on, then Matchmaking > Identity to manage the lists. The Identity tab appears only while Enable identity is on.
How identity works
There are three lists. Their default names are Persona, Industry and Function. Each has an onboarding question: "What best describes you at this event?", "What industry is your company in?" and "What is your primary function?".
You can rename each list and its question. The persona is shown more prominently on profile cards than the other two.
Each attendee can hold one value per list.
The match list ranks attendees by their interest selections. An attendee in the same industry as the viewer gets a small bonus on top (2 points, against 20, 10 and 4 for the interest terms). Persona and function do not affect ranking; they are shown on profiles and used as filters.
Turn on identity and set what is mandatory
Open Matchmaking > Settings.
Turn on Enable identity.
Under Mandatory identity data, select the fields attendees must fill in: Personas, Industries, Functions.
A mandatory field whose list is empty is skipped during onboarding.
Add and edit the lists
Open Matchmaking > Identity.
Open the Persona, Industry or Function tab (or the names you gave them).
Select Add new, enter the name and press Enter.
Hover an item to edit (pencil icon) or delete it (trash icon). Deleting asks "Are you sure you want to remove this persona?" (or industry, or function). Drag items to reorder them.
Select Save changes. The message "Identity settings saved" confirms it.
Changes apply when you select Save changes. Renaming an item keeps it on attendee profiles. Deleting an item removes it from every attendee who had chosen it.
Rename a list and its question
On the list's tab, select Rename.
Under Naming, choose Custom name.
Enter the Name and the Onboarding question. Both are required.
Select Save. The message "Identity updated successfully" confirms it.
To go back to the default name and question, choose the option labeled with the default name (Persona, Industry or Function) under Naming and select Save.
Identity in the setup wizard
When you set up matchmaking with Start matchmaking, the third step is Identity data. If you chose a Brella template, the lists are pre-filled from it. Edit them and select Proceed. Proceed is unavailable while all three lists are empty. Skip Identity asks "Are you sure?"; confirming turns identity off and does not save the lists shown in the step. You can turn identity on later in Settings.
Import identity from a CSV file
File format
The file has a header row and three columns. Save it as a comma-separated .csv file in UTF-8.
Persona | Industry | Function |
Investor | FinTech | Sales |
Startup | SaaS | Marketing |
Corporate | Product |
The same file as text:
Persona,Industry,Function
Investor,FinTech,Sales
Startup,SaaS,Marketing
Corporate,,Product
Rules:
The first row is required. Its three cells become the names of the lists, in this order: persona, industry, function. They replace names set earlier with Rename. The onboarding questions are not changed.
A header cell that is empty or equal to the default name resets that list to its default name, even if you had renamed it.
Every following row holds one persona in column A, one industry in column B and one function in column C. Empty cells are skipped, so the lists can have different lengths.
Columns after the third are ignored.
Spaces at the start and end of names are removed. Duplicate names are imported as separate items.
Names that contain a comma must be in quotes:
"Sales, Marketing". A quotation mark inside a name must be doubled, and the name must be in quotes.The order in the file is the order attendees see.
Tip: Matchmaking > Settings > Export > Export identity data > Export CSV downloads the current lists as brella-matchmaking-identity-<event name> in this format. The header row holds the current list names.
Import on the Identity tab
Open Matchmaking > Identity.
Select Import CSV.
Read the warning "Importing from a CSV file will override existing information. Click Cancel if this is not the intended action."
Under Identity data, select Select a file or drag and drop here and choose your file.
Select Import.
The current lists are deleted and cleared from attendee profiles, then the file is imported. The message "Identity data imported successfully" confirms the import.
Import before matchmaking is turned on
On the matchmaking start page, Import > Import CSV shows Matchmaking data and Identity data (optional). Add the identity file under Identity data (optional). Import stays unavailable until a matchmaking file is chosen, so you can't import identity alone from this page. After the import, identity is turned on. This page shows no override warning, but it empties existing lists the same way.
Import > Use an existing event copies the matchmaking data and the identity data, including the list names, from an event in your organization. It works only when this event has no identity data yet. Identity is turned on even if the other event had no identity data.
Settings
Setting | What it does | Default |
Enable identity | Shows the identity step to attendees and the Identity tab in the admin panel. Turning it off keeps the lists and attendees' choices. | Off |
Mandatory identity data | Attendees can't finish onboarding until they fill in each selected field: Personas, Industries, Functions. A selected field with an empty list is skipped. | All three selected |
What attendees see
During onboarding, the Personalize your profile step shows each list's onboarding question with a Select dropdown. A list with no items is not shown. Mandatory fields that are left empty show "Event persona is a required field", "Company industry is a required field" or "Function is a required field". If the event uses Fast onboarding instead of Networking-Oriented onboarding, attendees see this step when they set up their networking profile later in the app.
Attendees change their choices later under Edit event information in their profile settings.
The persona appears over the attendee's name on people cards and on the profile.
In People, the filters named after your three lists narrow the attendee list. While a function or industry filter is active, cards show that value.
Limits
Three lists, fixed by Brella. You can't add a fourth.
One value per list per attendee.
The importer sets no maximum number of items.
Matchmaking > Settings > Remove matchmaking deletes the identity lists together with the categories and turns identity off.
Troubleshooting
Update conflict - event already has identity data
You selected Use an existing event while this event already has identity data. Export the identity data from the other event (Matchmaking > Settings > Export) and import that file on the Identity tab. This replaces the current lists.
The import failed without a specific message, and the lists are empty
The file is not valid CSV, for example because of a space before an opening quote or a quotation mark inside a name. The admin panel emptied the lists before sending the file. Fix the file in a text editor and import again. Attendees' earlier choices are gone.
The lists are named after my first persona, industry and function
The file had no header row, so the first data row was read as the names. Add a header row and import again.
All names ended up in the first list, separated by semicolons
The file is semicolon-separated. The whole header row became the name of the first list. Open the file in a text editor, replace every ; with ,, save, and import again.
Attendees don't see the identity fields
Both Enable matchmaking and Enable identity must be on, and a list is shown only when it has items. The step belongs to the networking setup, so attendees with networking turned off don't see it.
A mandatory field did not block onboarding
Its list is empty. Add items to the list or clear the field under Mandatory identity data.