Sometimes the most important part of a meeting or event is making contacts, networking. This activity uses the format of a personals ad to have people introduce themselves and quickly identify people they wish to get to know.
The format is simple. On an index card, people write:
- Name:
- Attributes:*
- Turn-ons: **
- Turn-offs: **
- Seeking:***
*This means relevant information about you for the purposes of this event, e.g., in a meeting of labor activists, your union affiliation or other organization, etc. People should feel free to play with this, though.
** E.g., what excites you as an activist or organizer? And what do you dislike, try to avoid?
*** Seeking can mean what you are looking for in this meeting/event, or in a larger sense. I think in most cases, the narrower sense is more useful for identifying potential collaborators, or people who can help you get what you want.You can post the index cards on a big wall map (for a regional, national, international gathering), or pin them to your shirt and mingle, or dance through the crowd until the music stops and talk with the person closest to you... (Alforja idea)