Meeting new people
You are at a networking event and approach someone to introduce yourself. Build a natural, friendly conversation.
A beginner-level session of about 5 minutes.
Walking up is easy to rehearse. Three minutes later is not. The opening exchange at an event like this runs on rails, names and jobs and a polite noise, and it takes about ninety seconds, after which the conversation either finds something to be about or quietly ends while you both scan the room. That second stretch is the whole skill, and it rests on catching one specific thing the other person said and going back to it instead of reaching for the next general question. The professional you are talking to is friendly and will meet you halfway, which is realistic and slightly forgiving. At a real event, nobody is working to keep it alive except you.
Angles worth taking
- Take one detail from their answer and ask a second question about that, rather than moving on to a fresh topic.
- When you both go quiet, say what you were actually thinking about the event; a small observation restarts things.
- Offer something specific about your own work before you are asked, so they have a surface to ask questions about.
- Leave the conversation deliberately instead of letting it fade, because a clean exit is what makes a second conversation possible.
Who is in the room
You play
Someone new at the event looking to make connections
You speak with
A friendly professional at a networking event
Phrases to reach for
These are shown to you before the session starts. They are what you are asked to use, not a list the scorer is checking off.
Ready to speak?
Free to start. You need a TalkDrill account to speak — reading this page does not.
Browse all roleplay scenariosThe format
Modes
Learn (guided) · Mock (exam-real)
How a roleplay session works
Read your brief
Your role, the situation, and what a good outcome looks like. The counterpart has their own brief, and you do not get to read it.
Open the conversation
You speak first in most scenarios. How you open sets what you can ask for later, which is most of the exercise.
Handle the turn
Somewhere in the middle it stops going your way — a refusal, a counter-offer, a rebuttal you did not prepare for. That moment is the scenario.
Read the report
Outcome, the phrases you used and the ones you missed, fluency and clarity, and the specific line worth rewriting.
What you're scored on
Across every roleplay, the report looks at the same four things — because they are what makes a real conversation work or fail.
Make a good first impression and find common interests.
Task outcome
Whether you got what the brief asked for: the refund, the extension, the concession, the point conceded.
Appropriacy
Whether the register fits. A complaint that is too soft gets nothing; the same complaint too hard gets a manager and no refund.
Recovery
What you do with the unexpected turn — repair, rephrase, push back, or stall. This is where most of the marks move.
Delivery
Fluency, pronunciation and pace, judged in conversation rather than in a prepared monologue.
More roleplay scenarios
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