I personally met quite a few new people, but I did so at the Hackathon (where no one I knew was there) and at random (i.e. the non-event/invite) dinners. During the conference proper, when I didn't have something I really wanted to see, I followed a pre-conference friend to what they were seeing.
Also, yes we need to do the "Ask me about..." thing. I saw a lot of custom messages written on people's badges, and those were more effective conversation starters than just project listings alone. Sven On Jul 19, 2012, at 12:25 PM, Andrew Lih <[email protected]> wrote: > Make sure to put everything here: > > https://wikimania2012.wikimedia.org/wiki/Feedback > > I'll remind the HK folks about it too, as I love the idea of more "wiki-like" > mixing methods. > > -Andrew > > On Thu, Jul 19, 2012 at 9:05 AM, Joseph Fox <[email protected]> wrote: > I do hope the HK guys are reading ;) > > Joe > > On 19 Jul 2012, at 23:59, Thomas Dalton wrote: > > > On 19 July 2012 05:57, Florence Devouard <[email protected]> wrote: > >> The first is that I see a trend in seeing Wikimania as a "conference" > >> rather > >> than a sort of "giant meetup". I regret it. > >> I was particularly sensible this year to the fact we had "factions". I > >> could > >> see the French speaking guys hanging together here. And the German chapter > >> people hanging there. And in another corner the editing community of the > >> English Wikipedia. And over there, the Glam people. And though there were > >> naturally bridges between those groups, there was not much mixing and > >> bonding. > > > > I certainly found myself talking to people from the UK far too much. I > > did make a point of leaving the UK group to go and speak to other > > people a few times, but there is a strong tendency to drift back to > > the people you know. I think it becomes more of a problem the larger > > Wikimania gets. > > > > Having been to quite a few international Wikimedia events, I know a > > lot of non-UK people too, which helps. People at their first > > international Wikimedia event must find it even harder. There > > difficult part is always initialising conversation with someone new > > (we're all Wikimedians, so finding something in common to discuss once > > you've started talking is usually pretty easy). I have two ideas for > > helping people initiate conversation: > > > > * A speed-dating style event near the beginning of the conference. > > Make sure it is the only thing happening at that time to maximise > > participation. You won't be able to get everyone to talk to everyone > > else within a reasonable amount of time (1000 people, 30 seconds each, > > that's over 8 hours!) but you could speak to a large enough proportion > > of attendees for there to be someone you've met in most groups so that > > you can easily join the group. > > > > * "Talk to me about..." lists on badges. Knowing that someone is > > interested in a particular thing can give you an excuse to talk to > > them. > > > > _______________________________________________ > > Wikimania-l mailing list > > [email protected] > > https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimania-l > > > _______________________________________________ > Wikimania-l mailing list > [email protected] > https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimania-l > > > > -- > _______________________________________________ > Wikimania-l mailing list > [email protected] > https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimania-l
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