Go through this list before attendees start joining. Good categories and interests give attendees a short, clear choice and give Brella enough detail to tell people apart.
Before you start
You need to be an organization admin or an event admin.
Categories, interests and intents are edited in Matchmaking > Overview. See How matchmaking works.
Plan the topics
Start with three questions:
Who attends, and what do they want to achieve? Include the people they want to meet and the products, services or advice they seek.
Which program themes should continue as conversations between attendees?
What do sponsors and exhibitors offer that attendees may want to explore?
Turn those answers into specific conversation topics. For example, turn "Sustainability" into interests such as "Solar equipment" and "Building energy efficiency" under an "Energy" category.
Keep registration questions, such as dietary needs, in custom fields. They are separate from matchmaking interests.
Checklist
Every attendee finds something relevant. Cover the topics, roles and offerings of your audience. Brella sets no limit on the number of categories or interests.
Interests are specific. Brella lowers the match score of attendees who select more than 20% of the event's interests. At more than 80%, they rank near the bottom of every list. A short list of broad interests makes most attendees select a large share of it.
Each category groups related interests. Attendees see interests under their category headings. They can't select a category itself.
Interest names are unique. The Interest filter in People lists interest names without their category, so two interests named "Other" look the same.
No placeholder names remain. Every new category gets an interest named "Interest". A category added with the plus icon at the top right of the Category column, or with Add Category, is named "Main category". An imported category without interests also gets an interest named "Interest". Rename or delete them.
Intents fit each interest. Tick only the intents that make sense for the topic. For example, for "Series A funding" tick Investment and Networking, not Trading. New interests start with intents already ticked: Networking when added with the plus icon at the top right of the Interests column, or the intents of the first interest in the first category when added with Add new. Check them.
Intents match both sides of the room. Complementary goals count most in a match, such as a buyer and a seller. Tick Trading only if both buyers and sellers attend; the same applies to Recruitment, Investment and Mentoring.
Few interests need a goal choice. An interest with only Networking is selected with one tap. Every other intent opens a sheet where attendees choose goals, which adds a step per interest.
Sponsors fit the list. If you use matchmaking for sponsors, sponsors are tagged with the same interests. Include interests that describe what your sponsors offer. See Add matchmaking tags and locations to sponsors.
Spelling is checked. Category and interest names can be in any language. The intents and the goal labels attendees see, such as "Network about this", are fixed; you can't rename them.
You checked the list as an attendee. If you have joined the event in the app, open Edit my interests in your profile settings. Check that the categories, interests and goals make sense to your audience.
The list is final before attendees join. Deleting an interest, or unticking an intent, deletes the selections attendees made with it. See Remove categories, interests and intents.
