Conference Dichotomy Issues
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A bit of a buddy system where an old timer is a bit of a "conference social mentor" for a newbie would be cool. Like a big brother big sister program.
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@scottalanmiller said:
Maybe a special "meet and greet" session where special introductions are made or assigned first night dinner tables with newbies mixed in with old timers.
I was thinking of some way to make small group talk, get to know each other.. I like the dinner table idea.
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I recently attended a retreat where they did some interesting events around meeting other people. This stuff was pretty extreme to be doing at a conference, but it might give some ideas. One of the great things that we did was get assigned to small "teams" and those teams would do things like have a shared "story time" where people would tell stories about themselves as a way to get to know each other. It worked great.
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I like the idea of a 'getting social' session aimed at newbies.
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That might be painful to a true introvert and scare them off. But the buddy system and dinner table thing is a good idea. Maybe with these done ahead of time with a bit of this is who you will be meeting and a quick bio email before hand to make the initial meetup less stressful.
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I think really good badges could help. Clear names, usernames, avatars, location information, "scan me to contact me" QR codes and company info could go a long way.
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Really well organized social time could help too. You want lots of time with drinks, snacks and low volume background noise where people can meet up, talk and get to know each other. The Scale boat cruise was excellent for that.
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Yes a good badge is a must!
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Too much noise all the time gets to be WAY too much for people.
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@scottalanmiller said:
Really well organized social time could help too. You want lots of time with drinks, snacks and low volume background noise where people can meet up, talk and get to know each other. The Scale boat cruise was excellent for that.
While that's true, I only ended up talking to people I already knew. To make the Scale boat thing better, there should be assigned tables for at least 2 hours to 'help' the mingling.
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@Minion-Queen said:
Too much noise all the time gets to be WAY too much for people.
I agree, I find it exhausting; also combines with having to shout all day to make myself heard. Let alone trying to hear other people heheh
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@Minion-Queen said:
Yes a good badge is a must!
The QR code Scott mentioned could be awesome - something that the attendees can use. I can scan your badge to get your contact information. Possibly better than a business card.
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Much better than a business card.
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You could possibly allow someone to put in a super short BIO, weblink, etc..
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@Dashrender said:
@Minion-Queen said:
Yes a good badge is a must!
The QR code Scott mentioned could be awesome - something that the attendees can use. I can scan your badge to get your contact information. Possibly better than a business card.
Make sure to offer a good app for all of the phone types, you don't want people fumbling around with some BS app.
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@Minion-Queen said:
Too much noise all the time gets to be WAY too much for people.
DJs in the hallways would be a disaster, for example.
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@scottalanmiller said:
I recently attended a retreat where they did some interesting events around meeting other people. This stuff was pretty extreme to be doing at a conference, but it might give some ideas. One of the great things that we did was get assigned to small "teams" and those teams would do things like have a shared "story time" where people would tell stories about themselves as a way to get to know each other. It worked great.
This is literally my nightmare.
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I really like the idea of a "forced" mingle. Being generally introverted and totally okay doing my own thing lends itself not to get involved.
During SW I constantly forced myself to be around people "in the know" and was able then to feel like less an outsider, making this a core part of the events going on (social gatherings) would make it even easier for those of us who don't do as well forcing ourselves to interact.
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@Dashrender said:
@scottalanmiller said:
Really well organized social time could help too. You want lots of time with drinks, snacks and low volume background noise where people can meet up, talk and get to know each other. The Scale boat cruise was excellent for that.
While that's true, I only ended up talking to people I already knew. To make the Scale boat thing better, there should be assigned tables for at least 2 hours to 'help' the mingling.
Well that was at the end of that conference too, people looking to meet people needed to do it before then. Meeting new people is critical, but so is talking to the people you are there to see, that you are catching up with or whatever. Meeting new people needs to be early on and done with so that people can move on with their conversations.
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@coliver said:
@scottalanmiller said:
I recently attended a retreat where they did some interesting events around meeting other people. This stuff was pretty extreme to be doing at a conference, but it might give some ideas. One of the great things that we did was get assigned to small "teams" and those teams would do things like have a shared "story time" where people would tell stories about themselves as a way to get to know each other. It worked great.
This is literally my nightmare.
Sounds scary but it was actually awesome.
