Thomas Dalton, 19/07/2012 17:59:
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.
I remember that in Wikimania 2010 there was someone constantly reminding
us to say hello to random people we didn't know, to meet new wikimedians.
* 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.
As already written by some on [[feedback]], the first problem is being
able to meet people you know already, but only by name; which can
already easily count in the hundreds, if one is mildly active on wiki
and on mailing lists (although not everyone attends). What I did in my
first Wikimania was reading all badges to find names I knew, not always
efficient (especially if badges turn around). This might be the easiest
issue to address.
Nemo