A fascinating idea, for your next retreat, to encourage people to meet others

The Wall St. J., Sept. 15, 2007 at R6, explains a technology that helps people strike up conversations. Each person wears an electronic name tag, which contains a whole range of information about the person’s background, skills, job experience and interests. When a person approaches someone who has related characteristics – same school, same city lived in, same pet, or whatever – the badges light up and flash a welcome.

The article’s example is that the flash says, “Hi, Bob. We should be talking about biochemistry.” What a fascinating trick! Perhaps large law departments, who every few years bring together many strangers, might try this technique to overcome shyness and bridge separation.