What happens at a business matchmaking event?

Essentially, business matchmaking is all about networking and building connections between two or more entities, facilitated through meeting slots of usually 10, 15 or 20 minutes. The business matchmaker can be run as an event on its own, or in many cases it is part of a larger event that also has workshops, plenary sessions, perhaps even an awards ceremony, gala and more. Usually as attendees register for the matchmaker session online they are asked a few questions to sort themselves into industries, business categories and more refined options such as keywords and NAICS, SIC or UNSPSC codes. The event planner or the person responsible for running the matchmaker ultimately decides the parameters that will be used to match buyers and suppliers.

In the case of a strategic matchmaker, once the system generates the matches, the participants are sent their schedule so they know who they will be meeting with.
For a non-strategic matchmaker participants choose who they want to meet with so they will only meet with those whose meeting requests they have confirmed.