Over the past year, we’ve all become more familiar with virtual meeting spaces like Zoom and, while Zoom does virtual meetings well enough, for social gatherings, it can be a bit awkward.

One of the best things about mixers is the opportunity to wonder through the crowd, drink in hand, listening in on conversations and, when the inspiration strikes, to chime in. Tools like Zoom miss replicating this organic experience. If, you’re looking to host a virtual event that makes room for organic conversation, might we suggest Wonder.me?

A virtual space where people can meet and talk. 

Wonder.me is a (free for now) virtual meeting space that takes the experience of wondering between clusters of people and perfectly replicates it online, in your web browser (Chrome or Edge are supported, sorry no mobile support yet). Like similar platforms, you’ll join a “room” using your microphone and webcam. To give you an idea of how it works, imagine a cocktail party.

When you arrive to your cocktail party, you might have a vague idea of what you have in common with other attendees, but you won’t know who is talking about what until you slide into a conversation already in progress or start one of your own. With Wonder.me, a room host can create “areas” for suggested topics of discussion. Imagine your virtual cocktail party is for friends in the promo business. You might configure areas to prompt discussion around Company Stores, Apparel, and Lead Generation:

Just like at a real cocktail party, an attendee will enter the virtual room, take a look around, and identify a group of happy chatters to mingle with. At our pretend cocktail party, you identify a circle of people in the Company Stores area and decide to make your way there. Wonder’s interface works exactly as you would expect it to – join a circle by simply dragging yourself over to it, not unlike a real party but with less awkward self-talk hyping you up as you make your approach. Once inside the circle, you can see the video streams of participants, chat with them, or simply listen along.

When you’re ready to move on, simply join another circle or create your own by dragging your avatar to another individual. The whole process is incredibly organic. You can even have multiple circles in the same area. For example, you might be standing in the Company Stores area but one circle is discussing fulfillment and the other is discussing software. You don’t really know what conversations are happening until you get into one and that’s a part of the fun!

Find your friends and make new ones!

Sometimes when you get to a cocktail party, the first thing you want to do is say hello to your pals. With Wonder, this is a cinch thanks to the attendee list. With the list open, you can see which of your friends are already here and where in the room they are. You can even invite friends to the circle that you’re in.

To encourage conversation, Wonder supports ice breaker questions. If you’re the room host, you can create ice breakers for each area that you set up. Encourage attendees to get to know one another by creating question prompts that are visible when they enter group.

One of the most important things to do at a networking event like a cocktail party is to trade contact info to keep the conversation alive. Using the attendee list, you can send your new pals your contact details. New friend achievement unlocked! Your mother is proud.

Speak from the stage.

Your cocktail party is hopping and it’s time to make a toast! Wonder’s broadcast feature is the virtual equivalent of your stage. All conversations are paused while you make you announcement, give shout-outs to your sponsors, or present awards. Up to 6 people can join the broadcast which makes it perfect for panel discussions. You can even broadcast your screen or video.

Decorate your room.

To keep your event on-brand, hosts can set a background image for the room. Make it cozy with an image of a cocktail lounge or find a nice image from unsplash.com. You can even incorporate logos of sponsors into your background image.

How will you use Wonder?

Wonder is one of the most social platforms for virtual meetings that we’ve seen this year and it’s for that reason that we’ll be using Wonder to host our PromoKitchen Virtual Mixer. We encourage you to give Wonder a try before the Virtual Mixer. You might find your next remote work power tool!

How will you use Wonder at your business? If you’re looking to host a memorable online event, consider Wonder for:

• Meetups and Networking Events – Bring smart marketers at your top clients together for a virtual cocktail hour.

• Product Showcase – Create areas for different product categories and give prizes to the attendees by broadcasting from the stage!

• Virtual Offices – Stay connected to your team with a virtual office space