A Networking Exercise for Groups That Doesn't Feel Awkward

You've organised the session. Twelve people said yes. You open with a warm welcome, ask an open question, and then: silence. Eventually one confident person talks for four minutes. Everyone else waits it out. At the end people say "great session" and nobody follows up with anybody.

It's rarely the group's fault. Unstructured networking asks people to do three hard things at once: decide what to say, judge whether it's worth saying, and interrupt someone to say it. Most people will simply not pay that price in front of strangers.

Why structure beats good intentions

Every reliable networking format does the same four things:

• Everyone answers. Not "anyone want to share?" — a turn for each person, so participating isn't a status contest.
• The prompt does the work. A good question makes a quiet person interesting. A vague one ("tell us about yourself") makes them defensive.
• Feedback is assigned. People give far better input when they're asked specifically, and it creates a real connection between two named people.
• Something is written down. Otherwise the value evaporates the moment the call ends.

Practise it here: the online networking game

Our live networking game is that structure, as a facilitated multiplayer round. You start a session, participants join with a code or QR — no accounts, just a first name — and the game runs in rounds.

Each round, participants get a question about their venture and write an answer. Answers need a minimum of substance, so nobody escapes with "yeah, same as before". Then feedback gets assigned between participants, and the people who answered fastest are prompted to speak out loud — which gives you a natural, fair way to decide who talks, instead of whoever is boldest.

You run up to eight rounds and you control the pace: open a round when the group is ready, close the session when the energy is right.

What people leave with

At the end, the session produces a summary you can download as a PDF: every question, every answer, and the feedback each person gave and received. Participants get their own view of what they gave and what they got — so the session turns into something they can act on the next morning rather than a nice hour.

Good prompts to steal

Whether or not you use our version, these work:

1. "What are you working on that you're not sure about yet?" — vulnerability beats polish for creating connection.
2. "What would you need to make the next step possible?" — turns listeners into helpers.
3. "What's the assumption you'd most hate to be wrong about?" — invites real feedback instead of applause.
4. "Who are you hoping to meet, specifically?" — the single most underused question in networking.

Related

If the awkwardness is personal rather than structural, networking for founders covers the one-to-one version, and founder loneliness covers what's often underneath it. Facilitators running longer programmes may also want the simulation game for cohorts.