4 ms·

Most of the conferences I've gone to (i.e. DEFCON, BlackHat, etc) I've benefited from turning off the laptop, silencing my phone, and listening. There is no way

Most of the conferences I've gone to (i.e. DEFCON, BlackHat, etc) I've benefited from turning off the laptop, silencing my phone, and listening. There is no way you will grasp everything that is covered at a conference, and especially so if you aren't paying 100% attention to the presentations. A little dead-tree notebook and pencil/pen is enough. Learned that the hard way toting 10lbs of gadgets around my first year at DEFCON. On a networking note, bring business cards of some sort. People forget your name, forget your face, but its hard to forget something physically given to you when you're genuinely interested in talking to the other person.

GFischer 16y ago
How are business cards done these days? Besides email, do you list your twitter/linkedin or whatever social network account you use? Blog or website? Any neat tweaks on business cards you've seen? (USB business cards? I remember the CD ones - people weren't going to use them as a CD anyways so I guess it's not such a great idea) some bluetooth-enabled contact info from a cellphone app?
- abyssknight 16y ago
  On mine I listed my email, urls to related sites or projects, twitter id, and my Google Voice account phone number. Most of all, if you can make your cards relevant to the event, do that! Much easier to remember where you got the card from that way, which leads to better ROI of sorts. At DEFCON 17 I saw people use Bump on their phones to achieve this sort of thing without cards. At that same conference I actually came across a very cryptic card which ended up being a crazy puzzle game of sorts. That held my attention for a good 2 days.
- mikebradshaw 16y ago
  your call :) but they need to remind the person you give them too of you, so copying the "classic" look is not a great plan imho. I use Claimid.com (there are others out there like about.me) as a "home" URL so that people can link up in a way that best suits them. I would check out moo.com whatever you decide. Simple, low cost and classy looking (oh and the small ones stick out) Couple of ideas; - include your picture also the one you use as your avavtar on social media if it is different - if you have some graphics skills make a set of cards for each event you attend

GFischer 16y ago

How are business cards done these days? Besides email, do you list your twitter/linkedin or whatever social network account you use? Blog or website? Any neat tweaks on business cards you've seen? (USB business cards? I remember the CD ones - people weren't going to use them as a CD anyways so I guess it's not such a great idea) some bluetooth-enabled contact info from a cellphone app?

abyssknight 16y ago
On mine I listed my email, urls to related sites or projects, twitter id, and my Google Voice account phone number. Most of all, if you can make your cards relevant to the event, do that! Much easier to remember where you got the card from that way, which leads to better ROI of sorts. At DEFCON 17 I saw people use Bump on their phones to achieve this sort of thing without cards. At that same conference I actually came across a very cryptic card which ended up being a crazy puzzle game of sorts. That held my attention for a good 2 days.
mikebradshaw 16y ago
your call :) but they need to remind the person you give them too of you, so copying the "classic" look is not a great plan imho. I use Claimid.com (there are others out there like about.me) as a "home" URL so that people can link up in a way that best suits them. I would check out moo.com whatever you decide. Simple, low cost and classy looking (oh and the small ones stick out) Couple of ideas; - include your picture also the one you use as your avavtar on social media if it is different - if you have some graphics skills make a set of cards for each event you attend