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