One essential function of professional events, such as industry trade shows and academic conferences, is to foster and extend a person's connections to others within the community of their interest. In this paper, we delve into the emerging practice transitioning these events from physical venues to social VR as a new medium. Specifically, we ask: how does the spatial design in social VR affect the attendee's networking behaviors and experiences at these events? To answer this question, we conducted in-situ observations and in-depth interviews with 13 participants. Each of them had attended or hosted at least one real-world professional event taking place in social VR. We identified four elements of VR spatial design that shaped social interactions at these events: area size, which influenced a person's perceived likelihood of encountering others; pathways connecting areas, which guided their planning of the next activity to perform; magnets in areas, which facilitated spontaneous gatherings among people; and conventionality, which affected the assessment of a person's behavior appropriateness. Some of these elements were interpreted differently depending on the role of the participant, i.e., event hosts vs. attendees. We concluded this paper with multiple design implications derived from our findings.

翻译：职业活动（如行业展会与学术会议）的一项核心功能在于促进并扩展个人在其兴趣社群内的人际联系。本文深入探讨了将此类活动从实体场所迁移至社交虚拟现实这一新兴媒介的实践。具体而言，我们探究：社交虚拟现实中的空间设计如何影响参与者在这些活动中的社交行为与体验？为回答此问题，我们对13名参与者进行了实地观察与深度访谈，每位参与者均曾以参与者或主办方身份参加过至少一场在社交虚拟现实中举办的职业活动。我们识别出塑造活动中社交互动的四个虚拟现实空间设计要素：区域面积（影响个体感知的他人相遇可能性）、区域连接路径（引导个体规划后续活动）、区域吸引点（促进人群自发聚集）以及空间惯例性（影响个体行为恰当性评估）。部分要素的解释会因参与者角色（活动主办方与参与者）的不同而产生差异。基于研究发现，本文最终提出了多项设计启示。