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what would be the most useful is something which everyone would need to use. phone app that tracked your location and time, and would show you the info on peop

what would be the most useful is something which everyone would need to use. phone app that tracked your location and time, and would show you the info on people you stood near for... maybe a min of 30 seconds? location tracking may not be good enough for this indoors all the time, but for me, that's the one thing that I've wanted at conferences - a way to remember who i was talking with without interrupting the conversation to ask for cards/emails (especially in larger group discussions).

ghaff 9y ago
With all due respect, I do not want to be fracking tracked when I'm at an event. And loaded in a database somewhere. I can maybe be persuaded for event organizer use if it's truly anonymous--though given the difficulty of truly anonymizing I'm uncomfortable. The existence of such data has huge security/privacy implications given that people meet at shows to discuss all sorts of things that aren't on the radar. Maybe opt-in? I certainly wouldn't.
- mgkimsal 9y ago
  I probably didn't clarify enough, just alluded to 'everyone would need to use it'.... and should have added... "but I know that will never happen".
dominicr 9y ago
Thinking that the answer is making something that everyone "needs" to use is a problem. For example "to enter the conference they need to install this app that also tracks them" is a common thought but it's a bad idea as forcing your end users into a fixed action is bad UX. Mostly it just annoys attendees who will then try and find a workaround. The result of networking apps is some sales people generate a lot of very low quality leads at the expense of the event's reputation as most delegates don't want spam. For messaging apps 99% of messages will be sent by 1% of delegates: the pushy sales people. "Hey, want to meet to discuss my amazing product!" As you say, another option is is "tell me who I was talking to" but again the sales people pollute that experience. B2B events are about selling but there are sales teams who'll scan your badges as they're saying hello (electronically or visually) and then email you forever afterwards. I imagine that "tell me who I stood near" would result in sales teams walking around the entire venue, on the lookup for anyone that looks important to loiter near. Or they could just hide a device in the toilet and get everyone ;) We tried allowing delegates to build a contact list to message and then also notify when those people were at the same networking event just once. It really wasn't much value to anyone other than, you guessed it, pushy sales people that our VIPs would rather have avoided. I don't know if it's still the same but Grip's "tinder for events" used to rely on both parties showing mutual interest before allowing communication. That's the best mechanism that I know of but I wouldn't be surprised if the messaging connection rate was incredibly low.
- mgkimsal 9y ago
  "need" wasn't meant in that way (as in, requiring use for access). I was more meaning "the only way what I'm thinking about would work well is that it would require everyone to be using it". re: emailing - the 'tell me who i was standing near' - yeah, some might abuse it for email. if there was some in-app functionality to allow for 'connecting', both parties might have to agree to 'connect' there to exchange contact info (and yeah, there would still be some social pressure to do so that some people couldn't resist). Ahh... you just mentioned mutual interest - that's what I was getting at. Yeah, a 'tinder for events', based on geo location/time.

ghaff 9y ago

With all due respect, I do not want to be fracking tracked when I'm at an event. And loaded in a database somewhere. I can maybe be persuaded for event organizer use if it's truly anonymous--though given the difficulty of truly anonymizing I'm uncomfortable. The existence of such data has huge security/privacy implications given that people meet at shows to discuss all sorts of things that aren't on the radar. Maybe opt-in? I certainly wouldn't.

mgkimsal 9y ago
I probably didn't clarify enough, just alluded to 'everyone would need to use it'.... and should have added... "but I know that will never happen".

dominicr 9y ago

Thinking that the answer is making something that everyone "needs" to use is a problem. For example "to enter the conference they need to install this app that also tracks them" is a common thought but it's a bad idea as forcing your end users into a fixed action is bad UX. Mostly it just annoys attendees who will then try and find a workaround. The result of networking apps is some sales people generate a lot of very low quality leads at the expense of the event's reputation as most delegates don't want spam. For messaging apps 99% of messages will be sent by 1% of delegates: the pushy sales people. "Hey, want to meet to discuss my amazing product!" As you say, another option is is "tell me who I was talking to" but again the sales people pollute that experience. B2B events are about selling but there are sales teams who'll scan your badges as they're saying hello (electronically or visually) and then email you forever afterwards. I imagine that "tell me who I stood near" would result in sales teams walking around the entire venue, on the lookup for anyone that looks important to loiter near. Or they could just hide a device in the toilet and get everyone ;) We tried allowing delegates to build a contact list to message and then also notify when those people were at the same networking event just once. It really wasn't much value to anyone other than, you guessed it, pushy sales people that our VIPs would rather have avoided. I don't know if it's still the same but Grip's "tinder for events" used to rely on both parties showing mutual interest before allowing communication. That's the best mechanism that I know of but I wouldn't be surprised if the messaging connection rate was incredibly low.

mgkimsal 9y ago
"need" wasn't meant in that way (as in, requiring use for access). I was more meaning "the only way what I'm thinking about would work well is that it would require everyone to be using it". re: emailing - the 'tell me who i was standing near' - yeah, some might abuse it for email. if there was some in-app functionality to allow for 'connecting', both parties might have to agree to 'connect' there to exchange contact info (and yeah, there would still be some social pressure to do so that some people couldn't resist). Ahh... you just mentioned mutual interest - that's what I was getting at. Yeah, a 'tinder for events', based on geo location/time.