The Conference Connection Experience™

Your Attendees Came for the People. Give Them a Real Way to Meet Them.

Conferences bring people with shared interests together in one room, and that's a powerful thing. Attendees leave with fresh ideas, new energy, and pages of notes worth coming back to. The Conference Connection Experience adds a guided Connection Experience to your agenda, on its own or woven into a session on a connection topic, so they also leave with something just as valuable: a real connection to the community they came to be part of. It's where the community your conference is built around becomes something attendees actually feel.

Why This Matters Right Now

Ask people why they go to a conference, and most will say the people: the connections, the conversations in between sessions. Connection is already one of the biggest reasons attendees show up. In Bizzabo's 2025 Event Networking Report, 83% of attendees said networking opportunities matter when deciding whether to attend. The Conference Connection Experience makes meaningful connection something you can plan for, not just hope for.

At most conferences, a few natural connectors work the room with ease and seem to meet everyone. Everyone else tends to find a person or two early on, a colleague they came with or a new friend from the first session, and sticks with them. That's not a bad thing, but the room rarely opens up beyond those small circles, and even the familiar faces you see once a year rarely get past catching up. For most people, the hard part isn't wanting to connect. It's knowing who to approach, and getting past conversations that feel forced or awkward.

What it adds to your conference:

  • Attendees who feel part of the community, including first-timers and people who came on their own

  • More engagement and energy in the room, for the sessions, the breaks, and everything in between

  • A reason to come back. Attendees who have a meaningful moment at an event are 85% more likely to return the following year (Freeman, 2025), and who they met is often that moment

  • Something attendees talk about afterward, the moment they mention when someone asks how the conference was

An icebreaker or a mixer has real value, but being in the same room isn't the same as feeling connected. Research shows active participation is what makes people feel part of an event's community. The Connection Experience goes further: networking, done differently. A structured, guided way for attendees to meet each other as people, not just job titles, companies, and name badges.

The Conference Connection Experience

Starting at $1,200 · 60-90 minutes

The Connection Experience, designed for a conference audience. Attendees move through three rounds of conversation prompts, guided by a conversation framework, in rotating small groups of 3-4 people. By the end, every attendee has had real conversations with multiple people they didn't know an hour earlier. Every attendee also receives conversation prompts printed just for your event, theirs to keep and take home.

Tip: Kick off your conference with the Connection Experience. Attendees build connections before the first session, then carry their connections and prompts into every break, lunch, and whatever that follows!

A Closer Look: The Connection Experience

Three rounds of facilitated conversations using proven frameworks that help people share who they are beyond their roles and titles. After each round, participants move to a new group of 3-4 people, so everyone connects with multiple attendees.

  • Round 1: Getting Energized. Light, accessible prompts that create comfort while revealing perspectives

  • Round 2: Exploring Connection. Questions about how we relate to others and experience presence

  • Round 3: Essential Self. Reflections on who we are beyond daily roles

Each prompt includes deeper follow-up questions, so each round can go as deep as the group is ready for. The conversation framework can be adapted to your conference's theme and audience.

Let's Bring Connection to Your Conference

Conference Session + Connection Experience

Starting at $1,500 · 90+ minutes

Want attendees to explore a topic, not just meet each other? This weaves the Connection Experience into an interactive session on a connection topic, so the topic and the conversations build on each other, and attendees don't just hear about connection, they experience it in the room. Choose from the topics below, or we'll shape one around your conference theme. Sessions start at 90 minutes and can expand to fit your agenda, with more time for the topic as the slot grows.

For the Session + Connection Experience. Each session is interactive, and the Connection Experience is where the topic becomes real.

Have a theme that isn't listed below? Most conferences have one, and we'll shape a session around it.

Session Topics for Workplace and Industry Conferences:

  • Psychological Safety

    What actually makes it safe to disagree, ask a question, or admit a mistake? It's one of the strongest predictors of a high-performing team, and attendees practice building it, not just defining it.

  • AI's Impact on Connection at Work

    AI can answer a question in seconds, but it can't build the trust and shared context that come from knowing your colleagues. What stays uniquely human about how we work together?

  • Multigenerational Teams

    Different generations bring different strengths, but stereotypes get in the way. Attendees get past the labels by getting to know each other.

  • Loneliness in the Workplace

    Easy to miss and hard to name out loud, it's affecting more people than ever, and it quietly shows up in engagement and turnover.

Session Topics for Beyond the Workplace:

  • Human Connection in the Age of AI

    As more of our questions, and even our conversations, go to AI, what do we still need from each other?

  • The Loneliness Epidemic

    More connected than ever, and lonelier than ever. What's driving it, and what actually helps.

  • Devices and Digital Connection

    What our phones give us, what they quietly take, and how to be more present with the people in front of us.

"We've always said our conference is about community, but this was the first time I watched it actually happen. People who'd been coming for years met for the first time, and first-timers stopped standing on the edges. Our post-event survey had more comments about the connections people made than about any session."

"I came on my own and expected to spend the breaks on my phone. After the Connection Experience on the first morning, I had people to sit with at lunch, and a few of them are people I still talk to. It's the part of the conference I tell people about."

Where It Fits in Your Agenda

  • Opening session

    Attendees start the conference already knowing people, with prompts in hand to keep conversations going all day.

  • After lunch

    An energy reset when attention usually dips.

  • In place of the networking hour

    Same goal, with structure, so nobody ends up standing alone.

  • Closing session

    Attendees reflect together and leave with relationships, not just takeaways.

  • Breakout session(s)

    A hands-on option alongside traditional talks.

  • Evening or pre-conference event

    A welcome for first-time attendees or people who came on their own.

Let's Work Together

What’s Included

All experiences include a pre-event planning call, a professionally facilitated session, a conversation framework designed for your conference and audience, all materials, facilitator travel within 30 minutes of Portsmouth, and setup/breakdown.

Location & Travel In-person facilitation in Portsmouth, NH and surrounding areas. Complimentary travel within 30 minutes. Regional travel (30-60 min) includes $75 fee. Extended travel available by arrangement.

Group Size Up to 100 attendees in the standard format. For groups over 25, we ask that you designate 1-2 volunteers or staff (1 for 26-60 attendees, 2 for 61-100) to help distribute materials during transitions. A brief orientation is provided. Don't have volunteers or staff available? We can provide assistants for an additional cost.

Larger Audiences Over 100 attendees? The Connection Experience scales, with the same three rounds and rotating small groups. We'll design the right approach with you, for example: printed prompts for every attendee with assistants on hand, or a streamlined format with prompts shared on screen for the whole room, so no assistants are needed. Either way, attendees meet people well beyond their usual circle. Pricing by custom quote.

Room Setup Works best with movable seating or round tables, so groups of 3-4 can form and re-form easily. Theater-style rooms can work too; we'll plan around your space on the planning call.

Special Pricing

  • Nonprofit discount: 20% off for qualifying 501(c)(3) organizations

  • Multi-session discount: Book 3+ sessions together, held within 6 months, and receive 10% off the total (perfect for several smaller sessions on the same day, multi-day conferences, event series, or organizations hosting several events)

Meet Your Facilitator

Talia Rosenblum spent over a decade leading customer support and operations teams across hospitality and tech, managing global teams across time zones and cultures. The pattern she kept seeing: teams that knew each other, not just their job titles, collaborated better, navigated conflict with more grace, and showed up for each other when things got hard. That observation is the entire premise behind the Team Connection Experience.

Meet Talia →

Frequently Asked Questions

  • Networking usually focuses on what people do. This focuses on who people actually are, beyond their roles. The structure does the hard part, so nobody has to figure out who to approach or work up the nerve to walk up to a stranger.

  • That's exactly who it's designed for. The rounds start light and build naturally, and rotating groups mean everyone meets several people, not just whoever is sitting next to them.

  • It was designed with introverts in mind, and extroverts love it too. Small groups of 3-4 are far easier than a crowded room, the prompts take the pressure off starting a conversation and keep it from feeling forced, and nobody is pushed to share beyond their comfort level. Even the skeptics are often surprised by how meaningful it ends up being.

  • Yes. The planning call is where we shape the conversation framework around your theme, audience, and goals.

  • No. Just show up ready to be present. All facilitation, materials, and structure are provided.

  • Not formally, there's no collecting or locking away phones. Instead, presence is woven into how the session is facilitated: attendees are invited to set their phones aside for the experience, and most find they don't miss them once the conversations get going. We're not anti-technology, we're pro-connection.

    Thinking about making your whole conference device-free? We love that. The folks at Yondr specialize in phone-free spaces at scale and can absolutely make it happen.

  • Schedule a conversation and we'll figure out the best fit together.