A great conference happens when everyone is having fantastic hallway conversations. We setup CrowdVine networks to make it easier for you to find people in the hallway. If you’ve never used a social network at a conference (or even if you have) here are four tips for making the most of it.

1. Find people you want to meet

You can search, you can browse by tag, or you can browse other people’s contacts. For example, if you need help at work implementing OpenID, you should search the network for OpenID and introduce yourself to the OpenID experts. If you have a new Rails plugin that you want to publicize, then you should make a point of meeting all the other people who tagged themselves “ruby on rails”. If you want to do business deals, then you might want to browse the “CEO” tag.

2. Make yourself visible

Use a recognizable profile photo. You’ll be surprised how many people recognize you and introduce themselves.

Then take a few minutes to fill out your profile and answer the profile questions. You just need to give enough information for other people to understand your expertise and interests.

3. Contact people

If you mark someone as a fan, they’ll show up in your network. It’s the digital equivalent of waving hello. You can also track the their blog posts and popular sessions from your My Network tab.

If you mark someone as want-to-meet, you’re expressing some interest in actually talking face-to-face. They’ll receive an email and at least know that you’d like to introduce yourself. That’s miles better than interrupting someone’s conversation and then explaining who you are.

For anybody that you want to connect with, try leaving a comment. That can be a great endorsement for the person. It’s also a terrific way to ask a question or explain why you want to meet.

4. Recognize that there are no obligations

People come to conferences for different reasons. Not everyone you contact is going to contact you back. Likewise, you shouldn’t feel obligated to connect with everyone who contacts you.

Bonus tip #5. Enjoy yourself! This is social software.

“I met two people on my most similar list, and one opposite. One of the similar people I already knew from Mind Camp, and we just chatted for a bit. The other guy is also a local Python programmer working in Django (what I wrote the Noonhat site in) and he’s on the mailing list for my user group meeting. ;) Certainly similar. When I met the lady who was my opposite, it was like oil & water. Wasn’t even able to have a minimal conversation to figure out what she does.”

I’ve had very similar experiences using CrowdVine for conferences. People want to connect but there are a lot of barriers, both informational and social, to making meaningful connections. We’ve teamed up for Foo Camp to see how our software plays together. CrowdVine will provide the pre- and post-event networking and Pathable will extend that into face-to-face interactions.

Congrats to Peter and Shelly for a successful launch.