Conference Virgins and Conference Friends
At TED, they had a term called “TED virgin”. I can understand why they say that - it really is one of those experiences where you have to have been there to understand what it’s about. Some aspects are not unique to TED, however and the concept of a conference virgin is one of them.
Over the past few years, I have become more and more accustomed to the conference scene. As OK/Cancel has gained notoriety, I’ve also had less and less trouble breaking the ice with people. That’s because the conferences I went to were always the same demographic - designers and web geeks. On one hand, these conferences are great because you can bypass things like “what’s tagging?” and go straight into discussions that explore new domains. On the other hand, it’s easy to slip into a comfort zone because you end up knowing at least half the people at the conference.
I bring up the design conferences because I found an interesting parallel to TED. The first year I went to SxSW Interactive, I felt like an outsider. I perceived a lot of cliques amongst “A-List” bloggers (as Tycho says, there’s apparently “a list” and who maintains it is a mystery). Luckily, because we were there for the web awards, and we had some trading cards to build buzz, meeting people was made easier. The next year, a SxSWi virgin I met was expressing similar sentiments that I had. By this time, I was friends with a lot of these people and realized that it wasn’t about cliques at all. These are friends for whom this is the only time in the year they see each other - of course they’re going to seek and hang out with each other. SxSWi people are actually extremely open to meeting new people but sometimes, they’re busy catching up with old friends and need the newcomers to come and say hi (remember to say hi this weekend by the way).
Which brings me back to TED. Coming to this conference, I had a sense that I would be out of my element again. The audience and presenters were a whole other caliber and their accomplishments vast. Attendees included founders of major companies, cultural icons, inventors making the future now, scientists, musicians and of course, a former Vice Presidents. Also, TED is limited to approximately a thousand attendees via invitations (and a hefty registration fee). The assumption then, is that almost everyone there is worth talking to. Time however, is still limited and I still catch myself and others doing the “badge glance”.
Badge Glance v. To quickly scan a passer-by’s conference badge and ascertain the following in sequence:
“Do I personally know this person?”
“No? Is the person famous?”
“No? Am I interested in the company this person represents?”
This act is usually performed in seconds and can be subtle or overt depending on whether the badge glancer cares about the badge owner’s feelings.
Moreover, like SxSWi, many TED attendees are returning from previous years and thus, a reunion aspect of the conference similar to SxSWi exists. The combination of TED’s character with these pre-existing social circles made for an even more challenging environment for myself and some other TED virgins I met. Just like SxSWi, it’s not that people don’t want to meet you, it’s just hard to break that ice and there’s only so much time is limited.
TED Friend
At the beach party on the last day, I had an interesting conversation with Jacques Vroom where I brought up the intimidation factor as a TED virgin. My feeling was, “the accomplishments of most of these people is mind boggling, what do I even say?” He gave an interesting counter perspective, “that guy’s a young professional at Yahoo!, he’s probably going to talk a million miles an hour about things I don’t understand.” So I guess intimidation can work both ways and both are probably less valid than they seem. So we talked about the idea of a mentor program for conference virgins. For the sake of argument, let’s call it TED Friend. Each TED virgin is assigned a volunteer return attendee (their TED Friend). Right off the bat, you’ve improved by having someone to lunch with on the first day. Furthermore, the returning attendee can introduce you to the circle of people he/she knows throughout the course of the conference. No formal responsibility is assigned - this isn’t babysitting, it’s helping break the ice.
I’m fairly certain such a loose but slightly formalized system would work. If this was instigated at SxSW, I would gladly introduce my SxSW Friend to the many great people I’ve met and invite them to all the events I plan on attending. Further, the system could be tiered such that a second year attendee (TED Sophomore?) could have a TED Friend of their own.
I know I could still use one next year.
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