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| Start New | Message Index | Flat View |
| How can networking be encouraged at conferences? |
| Author: | William Hann |
| Date: | Wednesday, 20th Mar 2002 09:47 |
| Views: | 4,211 (excluding Digests and RSS feeds) |
| Category: | FreePint | | URL: | http://www.freepint.com/go/b16645 |
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[Editorial from Free Pint No.108, 21st March 2002]
As you probably know, we do try hard at Free Pint to attend as many information-related conferences as possible. This could be as invited speakers, interested onlookers or members of the press. However, I've felt for a long time that these events never make enough of the one thing that makes them so valuable.
Take for instance this week's Internet Librarian conference in London which I attended on Monday. At the end of the day I felt very satisfied with how productive and worthwhile it had been. However, this was nothing to do with the papers being presented or the exhibition floor. It was all about the people I spent time talking to.
Some of the meetings were planned, some were impromptu. Some were at the venue, some were in cafes nearby. They were all invaluable though, from simply catching up with friends, to in-depth discussions about the future of Free Pint and the information industry in general.
Although it was a productive day out of the office, the thing that frustrates me is that I didn't meet anyone who I didn't already know. Nearly all of the information conferences I've ever attended, be they in the UK, US or wherever, never seem able to encourage like-minded strangers to start networking with each other.
Sure, I appreciate the difficulties. It's not like conference organisers can emulate the host at a small dinner party who knows everyone and introduces people to each other with a quick mention of their interests. It's tricky to get a few hundred conference delegates to start playing silly games to break the ice.
I don't know how you encourage networking, but there must be a way. There has to be. Why? Because conferences that only focus on the papers being presented will not survive. Their real value is in bringing people together, face-to-face. Doesn't the word 'conference' actually mean people getting together to discuss things? It doesn't mean the one way communication of papers being presented in a lecture theatre with a tiny amount of time for questions.
Is it a problem of size? Perhaps one of privacy? What do you think? Maybe I'm the only one who thinks it is a missed opportunity?
If you've been to a really good conference where networking was successfully encouraged then please do tell us about it by replying to this posting.
Best regards
William Hann
Managing Editor, Free Pint
william@freepint.com
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| Start New | |
| Topic |
Author |
Date |
ID |
 | How can networking be encouraged at conferences? | | [Editorial from Free Pint No.108, 21st March 2002]
As you probably know, we do try hard at Free Pint to attend ... |
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William Hann |
20/03/02 09:47 |
16645 |
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Edw. Stollery |
29/03/02 03:23 |
16842 |
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Alison Ross-Dow |
27/03/02 17:10 |
16827 |
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Harry Joiner |
25/03/02 20:38 |
16795 |
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Clive Snell |
25/03/02 20:20 |
16794 |
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Clive Barrington |
25/03/02 18:48 |
16792 |
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Rosa Luxembourg |
27/03/02 14:56 |
16823 |
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sakthi rekha |
25/03/02 07:35 |
16771 |
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Martin White |
23/03/02 22:19 |
16752 |
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Kylie Baxter |
26/03/02 09:46 |
16798 |
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Geoff Butters, CERLIM |
22/03/02 11:28 |
16730 |
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Hazel Hall |
21/03/02 15:50 |
16711 |
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laurie c allen |
21/03/02 15:36 |
16710 |
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Atalanta |
21/03/02 13:31 |
16705 |
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kirsty |
21/03/02 13:15 |
16704 |
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Patrick Wallace |
21/03/02 11:49 |
16696 |
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Sue Rickard |
21/03/02 09:59 |
16688 |
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Alison Williams |
21/03/02 09:50 |
16687 |
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Judith Baker |
21/03/02 09:05 |
16685 |
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Peter Hodgson |
20/03/02 16:49 |
16666 |
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Roger Cook |
20/03/02 15:10 |
16664 |
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Martin Baldock |
22/03/02 09:25 |
16726 |
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