Shared schedules are a powerful feature of Buyer <> Supplier events
In this article we take you through the concept and configuration steps for Sharers in MustMeet events at Grip.
In this article, we’ll cover:
- What are Sharers?
- What are the requirements for Sharers?
- Sharer Relationships
- Setting up Sharers
- How do preferences & scores work with sharers?
- FAQs
What are Sharers?
Sharers, simply put, are MustMeet event participants that share meetings. In general, sharers have the same set of prescheduled meetings as each other, and so their schedule will usually look exactly the same.
In Grip, attendees who are set up as 'sharers' all have the same meeting location assigned to them, and so they're all part of any meetings that happen at that location. In reality, they may not all need to physically attend every meeting, but as they are sharing a schedule, any one (or more) of them will attend the meetings happening at that location.
This is usually used by a team of suppliers, so that the company can have one schedule of meetings, with those meetings appearing in all of their representatives' calendars, and so divide the meetings up between themselves.
Here are some import notes regarding sharers:
- Sharers are only applicable to the Buyer <> Supplier MustMeet events. Any2any events do not have this function as meeting locations aren't assigned to individual attendees or companies.
- Sharers can only be set up for the data type that has meeting locations assigned to it. This is usually suppliers but could be either party, as long as only Buyers or Suppliers are assigned locations at your event.
- Generally, Sharers share the same calendar throughout the entire event. However, it is possible for sharers to mark themselves (individually) as not available at certain times, and MustMeet will account for slight differences in availability where possible.
- Generally, Sharers will also share preferences. This means that only one Sharer needs to make preferences during the selection phase, and any preferences made and received will be applied to their connected sharers too.
- Sharers should be set up fully before the event launches in order to properly share preferences and meeting scores. You can add sharers later in the event, but it requires regenerating scores and meetings, and is a much longer process.
- Sharers don't share non-MustMeet meetings. If your event also has a Live Networking phase, where individuals can create their own meetings, sharers act independantly from one another, just like normal attendees.
Example:
Imagine that you and two of your colleagues have been invited to the "Event Tech Life" event. Your company, Grip, has 1 meeting location assigned at the event - "Table #3".
| Supplier | Grip: Jack, Kate, Emma | Grip: Jack, Kate, Emma | Grip: Jack, Kate, Emma |
| Buyer | Toma | Jane | Leyla |
| Meeting Time | 4:00 - 4:30 Pm | 4:30-5:00 Pm | 5:00-5:30 PM |
| Meeting Location | Table #3 | Table #3 | Table #3 |
This location is therefore shared by all 3 suppliers. This means that for you and your colleagues, all your meetings will happen at this location, and all 3 of you will meet with 1 buyer at a time at Table #3.
What are the requirements for Sharers?
Sharers need two things in common in order to share their preferences and meetings:
- Sharer relationship. The attendees need to be related to each other in the event, using a special relationship.
- Shared location. The sharers must all have the same MustMeet meeting location assigned to them, where their meetings will be booked.
Sharer relationships
In order to flag to MustMeet that sharers should share preferences, a Sharer relationship needs to be created in the event, and each individual needs to be related to their sharers using a Sharer ID.
The sharer ID works just like an Exhibitor ID, but connects participants together instead of the normal participant <> company relationship. We use a special relationship for sharers because there may be instances where not all of a company's representatives want to share their meetings.
For example, perhaps the sales team want to share meetings, but the CEO wants their own set of meetings. In this case, the sales team and CEO would have the same Exhibitor ID, as they should all be related to the same Company, but the Sales team will also have a Sharer ID in common, so that they can share meetings.
Using the same example, the Sales team would also be assigned a single meeting location, but the CEO would have their own dedicated location.
Setting up Sharers
Step 1 - Creating a Sharer relationship in your event
You'll need to create the Sharer relationship for your MustMeet event, which will allow attendees within certain data types to be related to each other using the Sharer ID field. Follow the steps in this article to create the Sharer relationship, for each data type that can be related. Often this is done for a single data type - so you're permitting 'Suppliers' to be connected to other 'Suppliers'.
Step 2 - Managing meeting locations
There are a few ways to create meeting locations - the most popular is through the data load step below; however it's worth ensuring before this happens that the sharer arrangement is well thought-through. Remember, the following key points:
- Only one group should be assigned meeting locations (Suppliers or Buyers).
- Any individual attendees (non-Sharers) need their own dedicated meeting location.
- Each set of sharers needs to share the same meeting location.
Then, ensure that you have set up the default location settings under Meetings > Meeting Locations > Default Location Settings, after which you can move on to the data load.
Step 3 - Assigning locations and relationship via data load
The most effecient way to create relationships and assign locations is via your registration system as part of the data load into your event. This could be via a Native Integration, spreadsheet upload etc.
In order for relationships to be created between Sharers, they just need to have the same Sharer ID. As mentioned before, they can have a separate Exhibitor ID in order to connect them to their wider team members and company - these relationships can all coexist. You'll be able to see that Sharers are connected to eachother by checking their profiles in the dashboard, and also by viewing them in the event.
Dashboard:
Web Networking Platform:
How do preferences & scores work with sharers?
Simply put, preferences made by, or made on sharers are shared! That means that if one sharer makes a preference on another participant, Grip will treat all sharers as having made the same preference on that participant. This works in reverse too, with any preferences that are made on one sharer being applied to the sharers they have a relationship with.
This means that technically, only one sharer needs to make preferences on behalf of their sharers - though each sharer can log in and make their own set of preferences, with the results being effectively added together.
Of course, during the preference phase, sharers could separately choose to make a different preference on the same participant profile. Where these preferences conflict, the second sharer to make the preference is prompted by the platform, asking them whether they want to continue.
For example, one sharer could choose to 'Meet' a participant, and later, another sharer could choose 'No thanks' on the same profile, at which point they'll see the following message:
There is a heirarachy built in to preference sharing, where Grip will take the 'strongest' preference if there are conflicts like this:
No preference < Meet < MustMeet < No Thanks
When creating scores for sharers, Grip takes the 'strongest' preferences and applies them to all the sharers, giving them all an equal score for each participant match. See our MustMeet scoring article for some examples here.
Generating schedules for Sharers
There are no additional steps needed to account for Sharers when generating meeting schedules for your event. Sharers are detected automatically in the MustMeet dashboard due to them having the same meeting location. You'll see sharers displayed within the same row in the list of profiles and they'll receive the same set of meetings - whenever availability conflicts allow.
FAQS
Can sharers make separate preferences?
Yes, sharers can make different preferences. Each sharer logs in separately and has their own journey. Those preferences are totally up and shared, and the strongest preferences take priority.
If only one sharer logs in and makes preferences, will the other sharers still get meetings?
Meetings are only generated for participants who have logged into the platform at least once - in Grip we call this being 'active'. For sharers to receive meetings, they must be active in the event at the point where meeting schedules are generated. They do not need to make their own preferences though, as explained in the article above.
How does the sharing functionality work with meeting exclusivity?
These two concepts are similar but not the same, and they are compatible with each other. Exclusivity is designed to prevent people having unnecessary meetings with more than one person from a company. If a company's representatives are set up as sharers however, you can't meet them separately anyway.
Exclusivity does become important if you have companies in attendance that have some representatives set up as sharers and some that aren't, in the same event. It is also helpful if you have multiple Buyers from the same company, and don't want them to meet both meet suppliers from the same company, whether they're sharers or not.
See our article on Excusivity for more details.
Can sharers have different meeting availability?
Yes, they can. In this case, MustMeet will attempt to give sharers the same schedule, but it will exclude some sharers from meetings where they've marked themselves as unavailable. This will depend entirely on how similar the sharer's availability is.
When importing data into MustMeet, you'll see warnings for sharers that have different availability. You can continue and ignore these warnings if this is deliberate.
Can sharers have separate meeting minimum and maximum limits?
Yes, they can. However, as they will share schedules (as much as possbile - see the previous question), there meetings will generally be capped at the lowest limit, or highest minimum target.
For example, if one sharer has a maximum limit of 20 meetings, and their related sharer has a limit of 18, both sharers will receive 18 (if possible). This is to ensure that limits are not exceeded.
Similarly, if one sharer has a minimum target of 5 meetings, and their related sharer has a target of 10, both sharers will receive 10 meetings (if possible).
Again, when importing data into MustMeet, you'll see warnings for sharers that have different targets and limits. You can continue and ignore these warnings if this is deliberate.
How can I manually create relationships between two sharers in the Grip dashboard?
Assuming that the event has a Sharer relationship set up for the right data type(s), you can manually create relationships by editing their profiles in the dashboard. See the Relationships section of this article for more details.
It's important to note that a Sharer ID is not automatically created for profiles where a relationship is manually created. It's good practice to give any related Sharers the same Sharer ID before or after creating their relationships manually. This ID can be anything you like, as long as it is unique, and profiles profiles have the same value - e.g. "SHARER_087".
Can I set up sharers after generating meetings?
Yes, though in order to add sharers later, you'll need to recalculate the scores and regenerate the meeting schedules.
Use this example as an explanation of the steps you'd need to take.
Sharer A - was previously active and made preferences.
Sharer B - was not part of the event, or was previously inactive.
- Set up Sharer B, ensuring that they have a relationship to Sharer A, and both have the same MustMeet meeting location assigned.
- Activate Sharer B or instruct them to log in to the platform.
- Regenerate the meeting scores for the event.
- Reload the data into the MustMeet platform. Check that the two sharers are displayed properly.
- Regenerate meetings. You can either:
- Regenerate meetings for the entire event - this will remove all meetings and generate all schedules from scratch, including the new sharer.
- Manually unbook Sharer A's meetings, and then either:
- Manually rebook them one-by-one, if you don't want to disturb any other participants' schedules.
- Use the 'Generate for unbooked slots' function, which will have MustMeet rebook any meetings now available across all participants.
- Approve schedules