Abstract: An appointment matching apparatus facilitates event management by performing a method for scheduling appointments among attendees of an event. An event organizer configures the apparatus with event-specific information. The apparatus generates registration and appointment preference user interface forms that attendees use to register for the event and to request appointments with other attendees. The appointment preference form may receive from an attendee criteria for identifying other attendees with whom there is a desire to meet. An appointment matching process automatically schedules a set of appointments between/among matched attendees to optimize fairness or effectiveness over the entire set of scheduled appointments. The appointment matching process uses configuration data for the event, registration information, appointment preference criteria, and meeting location information.