CrowdVine is Rewired

Help me meet someone.

I recently attended a conference on the topic of online marketing. I was traveling by myself, and besides a few people I suspected that I may run into, I didn't formally know anyone else that was attending or speaking at the event.

I'm not incredibly introverted, but I'm not also someone to walk up to strangers in a big crowded room and start conversations. I knew that it would be nice to start some online conversations leading up to the conference so I would have some people to meet, and probably learn some things from. Help me not eat lunch alone wihle I'm there, or end up without any after-hours plans each night!

Turning to my go-to social media site, Facebook, started me down a path. There was a Facebook group setup for the event which had a number of members. Scanning the list of names didn't turn up anyone familiar. There were no discussions going on in the group, and really no activity. My first path was a dead-end. LinkedIn's Groups feature is a little too formal for something like this, so I doubted that someone had created one just for this one-time event. I skipped them completely as an option.

Then I scanned over the email I had received when I registered for the event. The email prompted me to setup an account on CrowdVine, and that it would be used as the social media platform to communicate about the event. I had never heard of CrowdVine, but it was free, so I had nothing to lose.

Creating an account took less than ten minutes. I entered my interests, professional information, links to profiles (LinkedIn, etc), and uploaded my photo. When I logged in I knew I was on the way to accomplishing my goal.

I still didn't know anyone, but the discussions that were happening on the site led me to believe that other conference goers were hiring the site for the same reason that I was. Discussion topics included, "Who Is Arriving Early And Attending the Sunday Cocktail Party," and "Who Wants to Find a Good Manhattan Wine Bar on Monday Night?"

I joined in on a few of the conversations, and accomplished my goal. Then CrowdVine took it a step further. I received an email a few hours later telling me that someone wanted to meet me while I was at the conference. I clicked the link, and it was another online marketing professional with similar interests. Until then I hadn't noticed the "+ Someone I Want to Meet." link under the photo on people's profiles.

After scanning the profiles of a number of people on the site, I began clicking the link and letting people know that I'd like to meet them. This one tiny link was no great programming feat, but it's inclusion in the software enabled it to accomplish the job that I needed to have done. Help me meet someone.