Alan LevineYou enter a large ballroom or conference venue, full of groups of people having interesting conversations. Many people you know, quite a few you do not. Do you expect to be part of every conversations from start to finish? Do you mill about seeing where you can drop in? Do you rely on people later to tell you what you heard?
Dan Blickensderfer@cogdog Full disclosure: After milling about I go back to the hotel room and fire up Twitter. Except for that one valuable time I sat in a rocking chair with Chuck Pearson and @Readywriting. #OpenEd16
Christina Hendricks@Dan_Blick @cogdog @Readywriting @cogdog I mill about for a little while with a drink and search desperately for people I know while trying not to sip too quickly that one free drink I get. Then I talk to a couple of people I know and they leave and I look desperately around again and see no one I know so like Dan I go to my comfy corner of social media.
Kate@clhendricksbc @Dan_Blick @cogdog @Readywriting I stand like a secret service agent frowning implacably at the crowd till my free drink is done, and then I flee with indecent haste. I am absolutely the most rubbish at this.
@mahabali knows that this is why the assumption of conference networking as a social bonus makes me wary. For introverts it really often isn't. I have a capacity for it measurable in minutes.
I want to meet @katebowles in person and then flee with indecent haste.
@Dan_Blick @mahabali @cogdog @clhendricksbc @Readywriting It's the reason behind a lifetime of flat shoes: there will be fleeing. There will be indecent haste. There will be all kinds of social hopeless.
catherinecronin@katebowles @Dan_Blick @mahabali @cogdog @clhendricksbc @Readywriting @lauraritchie I love this thread :) I'm such a cultural hodgepodge of the countries I've lived in that I'm likely to speak or hug inappropriately. there may be awkwardness, but there will be laughter. virtual hugs, all ;)
Maha Bali مها بالي@catherinecronin @katebowles @cogdog @Dan_Blick @lauraritchie @clhendricksbc @Readywriting
Thing is...some ppl r so close to me we actually have the "hug conversation" before we meet to set guidelines. But lots of other times ppl will see me hugging someone else and assume it is ok to hug me whenever.
Once I (apparently) was so friendly to a (Muslim but living in US) man I was meeting for first time for business (vendor!) and he asked for a hug when i left (I said no, in front of a colleague)