For the last few years I’ve been using, what I call, none traditional methods to build a network. That means weblogging, podcasting, LinkedIn, emailing, commenting, instant messaging, wikis, and other online tools.
15 years ago, before attending a conference, you might connect with a few contacts to let them know you’re planning to attend. It might be hit-and-miss, because there was no way of knowing for sure if they also planned to go.
Today it’s different. You can successfully connect with strangers well before an event, starting conversations, arranging meetings, and even organizing to sit next to them on the inbound flight.
Here are a few techniques to enhance your conference networking experience:
Announce you intention to attend on your weblog, and offer to meet other attendees. That way people that read your weblog, or people that search Technorati will know you’re attending.
Announce you intention to attend on your podcast, and offer to meet other attendees. It’s similar to a blog post–it isn’t as searchable–but may reach a different audience.
If the conference has a wiki, use it. Read it and add yourself to it. Again, this broadens your reach.
Check Upcoming.org. If the event is listed it can provide a comprehensive list of people attending. In many cases it’ll help you find someone’s weblog. In some instances their are other events organized outside of the conference for attendees to gather, if they are listed on Upcoming you’ll get a heads-up.
Technorati provides a keyword search so you can find other webloggers discussing the conference. Better yet, you can create a watchlist of keywords that might relate to the conference, and subscribe with a news aggregator. That way you can see the weblog conversations happen in close to real time, and see who else mentions they are attending. For example, the etech tag at technorati.
Danah Boyd suggested the tech crowd use AirTroductions. Plug in your flight details and it’ll show you a list of other flyers who’ve added themselves. That way you can connect at the airport or onboard the flight. Ben Metcalfe was also inspired by Danah’s post, and we’re now meeting at SFO before our flight.
Almost every tech event has an attendee who posts their photographs to Flickr. It’s yet another way of staying up to date in real time. Again, you can subscribe to a photostream feed for a tag, set, or group, to make it easy to stay on top of the data. e.g.: Flickr’s etech06 tag.
If you use an Instant Message client, it’s worth changing your mood message, or status to notify your contacts you will be at the event. It’s like having a post-it note on your forehead, but a little less distracting. I noticed that James Seng is in Perth this week with exactly that method. I pinged him, and we’re catching up for dinner.
These tips are currently applicable to ubergeeks, because we’re early adopters. However, it shouldn’t stop people from extending the use to other industries.
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2 Comments
Actually, I’ve had to reschedule my flight so I won’t be on the same flight now
Sorry, but I’m sure we’ll meet up @ ETech.
Ben
I wonder if you can add a blacklist of people you DON’T want to sit next to… Red Sox fans, small children, ex-spouses, people you’ve fired or that fired you. Like the wishlist, it might be worth paying a premium for the seating. Side effect: the repugnant have a better chance at getting an empty seat adjacent and airlines might even spring for their treats.