Buddy System Networking Program
The Buddy System Program is a networking program that was developed for large conference or collaboration meetings. It has been applied to the DUNE experiment at their collaboration meeitngs, which hosts 300-500 attendees. The program is optional and aims to match attendees who opt-in with another participant, based on their preferences communitcated through a survey.
The goal is to create one-on-one networking matches for participants who...
- Are first-time attendees at the meetings
- (and/or) Are attending virtually, to still make at least one connection during the meeting week
- (and/or) Seasoned attendees who ant to make connections outside their usual circle
For the January 2026 DUNE collaboration meeting, here is a breakdown about some of the Buddy System participants:
| Number of years on DUNE | Early career and virtual attandance participation |
|---|---|
 |  |
Buddy System on the Move!
The Buddy System has been adapted for multiple experiments' collaboration meetings and some upcoming conferences. A list below has some examples of who have reached out to me to adopt the program for their purposes:
- IceCube Collaboration
- T2K Collaboration
- LZ Collaboration
- Belle-II Collaboration
- University of Cincinnati Physics Department
- American Physical Society (APS) Division of Particls and Fields (DPF) Conference in July 2026
About the Matching
Adopt the Buddy System for your Meeting!
People are more than welcome to use the Buddy System Program for their own conference or meeting! There are examples of documentations available in the Buddy System Google Drive!
- Example of survey to faciliate matching
- Example of post-program survey to gather feedback
- Tips and tricks
- How to automate emailing in google sheets