This is a weird idea, but not the first I’ve ever shared, so why not…
I used to watch this show on TV about people on the spectrum. They had a hard time starting conversations, so one solution was speed dating, where men would sit at a table and women would move around and sit down for five minutes until a bell rang and then move on to the next table.
Being somewhat on the spectrum myself and finding it hard to start conversations, I propose this idea:
There should be a “speed dating for geeks” session. The goal would not be to meet a mate, but to meet someone with whom you can share your work. It would be more for super technical people than marketers.
The conversations would go something like this: “Tell me about your project…blah, blah, blah…half-time…let me tell you about my project…blah, blah, blah…bell rings…move to next conversation to learn about a new project that you never heard of.”
If you get 30 people and spend an hour (12 five-minute ding-dings), you would produce 360 potential friendships plus an unknown number of potential “collaborations.”
Note: this is not VC speed dating. It would be between highly technical people, not highly extractive people.
Just an idea.