Last night, I met Fake Steve Jobs. Technically. We shook hands. He retained knowledge of my first name long enough to write it in the appropriate spot during a book signing, and then I was out of slot, and making room for John Wall to get his five seconds with FSJ.
A few times during the night, my friend David Solomont pointed out that he loved this kind of social event, and that social networking would never replace this, and that I should blog about it and give a hat tip to him for the idea. Only, David had the inverse experience that I had related to my typical experience. Here’s what was different.
I Knew Four People There
All of them came from social media connections. One was Tom Summit, who runs a meetup group out of Facebook in the next town. The other was John Wall, a famous local podcaster and new media friend. The other two were through friends I’d met in the new media space. The only four people who I knew, and who knew me, had only heard of me because of online connections first. Oh, and I knew Fake Steve Jobs from his blog.
What Could’ve Helped
I’m betting almost everyone in that room had a web presence. It would have been cool to have access to their web presence ahead of time. Sure, I get not being handed the list of email addresses of people coming. I wouldn’t want MINE given out, either. But what about our sites? What about the URLs? Those can’t be harmful, and they could have helped us know each other ahead of time.
I’m not thinking that Fake Steve and I would suddenly be best of friends, nor do I think he had to know in detail the 150 folks who showed up. But I think that he would’ve enjoyed knowing the folks who had come down to Boston to see him, and I think the rest of us who only got 30 seconds or so in fSteve’s graces (in general) would’ve had lots more to talk about amongst each other.
No, it’s not that social networking replaces good old fashioned meeting of everyone in a space. But in a room with 150 people, filled to the gills, there’s a lot of silly bouncing off each other that happens while trying to find the right kinds of people to met. David Solomont connected me to Steve Woit from Xconomy, but had I known I was running into him, I would have refreshed my memory of one of his employees that I’d met at another event. David also introduced me to Maura Fitzgerald, a cosponsor of the event, and I could have seen more about her business ahead of time.
If YOU are Planning a Mixer
I encourage you to consider ways that your guests can learn about each other ahead of time. It can make all the difference in the world.
The Social Media 100 is a project by Chris Brogan dedicated to writing 100 useful blog posts in a row about the tools, techniques, and strategies behind using social media for your business, your organization, or your own personal interests. Swing by [chrisbrogan.com] for more posts in the series, and if you have topic ideas, feel free to share them, as this is a group project, and your opinion matters.
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