Purpose: Create the opportunity for individuals to discover hidden expertise and make new connections while being a conduit for longer mentorship.
Supplies
(for as many people will be attendance)
- 4×8” heavy weight paper or cardstock
- 4×8” XL badge holders
- Lanyards
- 3×5” note cards
- Pens
Figure 1 All Supplies needed
Voting box (not pictured)
Prep
For the 4×8 paper, you can either leave blank or pre-print with the following (see pic):
- Name
- Super Power
- Skills/Expertise
- Below the line skills/Expertise
- Things I’m interested in Learning/growing In
Outline
Time needed depends on whether food/drinks are being provided. Roughly 1.5-3 hours depending on food & drink options.
- As people come in invite them to grab all the supplies and fill out their Market Place of Skills card (ref Figure 3)
- If food is provided, recommend people eat before the start.
- Convene.
- Introduce the Purpose of the night (or day depending on when you do this).
- Mention that at the end of the night if an individual has made a connection they’ll be asked to write down the name of the person(s) they plan on reaching out to for a 1on1 session.
- Open the session with an icebreaker. I had everyone do a quick name + super power introduction (this will serve as the individual ice-breaker later and ensures everyone actually list a super power).
- Speed- Mentoring. 5×7 Minute rounds
- Have everyone pair up (or get into groups of 3 max)
- Swap Market Place of Skills cards
- Have a conversation (the super power can be used as a quick mini-group ice-breaker)
- At the conclusion of the 7 minute round each person jots down the name of the person(s) they talked to with something memorable about them on the 3×5 card.
- Unstructured Re-connection time .5 hour – 1 hour
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- Participants can use this time to follow up with people they made a connection with or meet with others they didn’t get a chance to meet.
- As people leave (this event has a soft close), ask that they write their name and the name(s) of the people they plan on reaching out to on a 3×5 card and drop it in the voting box.
- Post Event
- After the event follow up with individuals that made a connection and remind them about the next step (the 1on1). When we ran this 65% of attendees said they planned to follow up with someone.
- In 2-3 weeks follow up again.