Not that anyone seemed to have any trouble breaking the ice or starting up a conversation, but TECHcocktail should have some kind of bingo game, treasure hunt, or something like that. This way, people have another excuse to chat each other up, can check things off, gather points, and there can be prizes at the end that you can effectively “earn” rather than just get lucky and win.
To get things started, here’s a sample list of point generators and things to find:
- If you’re a recruiter, you get one point for each minute you accidentally talk to another recruiter thinking they are in technology and looking for a job.
- You get one point for each person who introduces someone else as their significant other.
- If you unexpectedly meet an old significant other of your own, give yourself 10 points.
- Getting interviewed by someone who is carrying a tape recorder nets you a point. If you have to spell out a domain name into a tape recorder, you get one point for each letter in the domain name.
- One point for each domain name someone drops like it’s a household name but you’ve never heard of it. Two points if you’re the only one within earshot who has heard of that domain. Three points if you’ve actually been to the domain in question.
- One point for each person who, apparently being so new to this Internet thing, appends every domain name with .com, no matter how many times you say .net, .org, or .us.
- One point for each founder of a company whose product is not live yet. Two points if they have a known/estimated release date. Three points if it’s next week. Four points if the product is already live.
- One point if someone says “web two point oh”. One point for “web three point oh”. Two points for “web one point oh”.
- Three points when someone utters “ontology”. Subtract four points if it’s immediately followed by “Sorry, I’m not sure who’s familiar with that term”.
- On your trip to the restroom, you acquire one point for each person talking on the phone in there. Two points if they’re typing into a blackberry.
- One point for each mention of “D&D”, “Star Trek” or “Star Wars” you overhear. Two points if it comes up in a conversation you’re having.
- Distribution of professions:
- One point for each “project manager”.
- Two points for each “founder” or “partner”.
- Three points for any “designers”, “programmers”, “system administrators”, or “network administrators”. Bonus if they make known their “flavor” (Flash, Air, .NET, Cisco, Linux, Windows, OSX, PHP, RoR, Oracle, etc). Extra bonus if they’ve written a book.
- Three points for each “lawyer”.
- Zero points for recruiters.
- One point for each claim of “Internet Celebrity” status. One point if you recognize their name. Bonus if someone overhears and is awestruck.
- If you hear someone say “It’s my blog” and the person they are talking to responds with “What’s a blog?”, double your points (I kid you not, this actually happened).
- One point if a conversation you’re having gets cut short when someone needs to take a phone call. Two points if it was a legitimate phone call. Three points if they come back to continue talking after their phone call is finished.
- One point for each person who hands you a business card that is actually for the business they are talking with you about.
Overall, it was an enjoyable couple of hours. Free drinks are always nice. I’m told by those from Arstechnica who were there that the previous ones had more actual tech people and fewer, ahem, recruiters. I was kind of hoping to find some people to fill in the expertise gaps in the projects I’m working on or people to bounce ideas off of, but honestly I didn’t really know what to expect. I did definitely met some interesting people, people that I plan on following up with.
And then there’s this conversation August (aka Mayor Awesome) and I had:
“So, there don’t appear to be too many technology nerd chics here.”
“There aren’t even that many true nerds for that matter. But, yeah, it’s a sausage fest.”
“Shit, there’s even a sponsor for this sausage fest,” pointing at a logo for Poll Everywhere projected on the wall.
“See, even they know it’s mostly a big buncha guys.”