Hey guys,

Though I have been involved with developing with DNN since the version 2 days, this will be my first event that I will be attending.  So, from a "newbie's" perspective, I do have a couple of suggestions that might help although they may not be practical.

I'm assuming that there are a number of folks that come quite regularly, like Ryan and Will.  It would be cool for DNN to email these folks ahead of time if they know they are coming and ask them to arrive 30 minutes earlier at any given event.  Then, when someone checks in (I am also assuming there is some sort of check-in area for the first event), then perhaps that person could be introduced to one of the regular attendees.  Once a group of five or so newbies have congregated with a regular person, that person could just walk around with them for a bit (maybe 30 minutes or so?), introducing them to others they know, answering questions about the weekend,, etc.  Then, future events and days would be a bit easier to digest for the newbies, as they will have already met and know not only the regular attendee that walked them around, but also the other four newbies that were in their group.  

Alternatively, I do also like Will's policy of visiting everyone.  I also think it would be great for the regular folks to try to pay a visit to as many folks as possible during the first event to make people feel comfortable.

I also definitely like Ryan's suggestion about a break-out group for newbies.

Just a couple suggestions!

Kevin

Did Joe Craig say that moonshine & music isn't conducive to having a conversation?!?! WT*...Just kidding... great post Ryan, et al! I definitely think networking at Community Events is one of the major benefits to attending. I'm going to respond here in bullet fashion to hopefully make this post more consumable & throw out a few ideas:

• Achieving balance between networking and sessions may be tough... some may like back to back sessions all day whereas others may like the connecting part. I like the idea of a "Networking" session during the day so that those who wanted to connect could go and those who don't could attend other sessions.
• Joe's notion of sitting with people you don't know is great. I always try to do that and reach out to non-southerners especially. I think, as Señor Strohl mentioned, that we as community members should definitely reach out to newbies and make them feel welcome. It goes a long way and helps new community members onboard a lot more smoothly. 
• I like the "speed dating" concept, but think it may be awkward for some. Another option is to have attendees either submit pics or take pics as soon as they get there then have a rotating powerpoint (or module) that displayed on screens/responsive sites throughout the conference & event venues that rotated non-stop DNN Community Members pictures with the top 3 things they are into. Virtual speed dating FTW! We could see the top 3 things DNN Community members are into and easily note if we wanted to connect with them. So it may be loud, but we could still take in information about attendees and stop the person when we saw them around the conference if we were in fact interested in connecting with them. The rotating cards could be clean - something like these (except much nicer looking though):

• Let's say you're sitting in a session, but the session is not what you expected and/or boring. Then just watch the rotating module (if it's a module) and look for people to connect with. If you want to get funky make the module swipe-able so you could swipe through attendees and bookmark some. 
• Also, there's typically a gap in between day sessions & night events. Perhaps this would be an hour or so where an informal, "Meet me at the bar", social could happen.... and maybe even the bar tab could be picked up by Moore Creative! Sure we usually go up to our rooms and drop stuff off, change, etc, but there may be time where we could connect in a not-as-loud environment. 
• That is a great suggestion Kevin! Thanks for sharing...

Let's keep the ideas flowing... ACK!!!

 

 

 

 

 

All great ideas everybody. Ryan, thanks for getting this forum party started! ;-) I for one have been encouraged (thanks Will) to step out and make it a point to connect with people I don't know in the community. Yes, I'll still connect with my old friends, but I will definitely be making some new ones this year too, welcoming them into the community and seeing how I can help them succeed with DNN!

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