A timebound conference creates an artificially highly liquid market for conversations.
I think there are good ways to create virtual timebounds. Prime Day works pretty well for Amazon.
Here’s a sketch of one possible path:
Every Xth of the month is “Connection day”. People are encouraged to reserve several hours for calls on this day.
In the run up to “Connection day”, Forum users are prompted to suggest “Connection day” calls with each other.
The Forum helps you generate ideas for who to connect with. E.g.
3a. There’s a “Connection day” page that lists all the Forum users you’ve interacted with, ranked by recency and depth of interaction.
3b. There’s a list of all your Twitter mutuals, plus some “recommended follows”.
3c. There’s an easy way to suggest that Forum users you know reach out to someone in particular.
If both parties indicate that they want to meet on Connection day, then (MVP) their calendar links are shared to each other. If this proves popular then you can make a better UI with Calendar integration.
Lots of details to fill in here, but I would definitely try this, if it existed.
Re: Swapcard, you wrote:
I think there are good ways to create virtual timebounds. Prime Day works pretty well for Amazon.
Here’s a sketch of one possible path:
Every Xth of the month is “Connection day”. People are encouraged to reserve several hours for calls on this day.
In the run up to “Connection day”, Forum users are prompted to suggest “Connection day” calls with each other.
The Forum helps you generate ideas for who to connect with. E.g.
3a. There’s a “Connection day” page that lists all the Forum users you’ve interacted with, ranked by recency and depth of interaction.
3b. There’s a list of all your Twitter mutuals, plus some “recommended follows”.
3c. There’s an easy way to suggest that Forum users you know reach out to someone in particular.
If both parties indicate that they want to meet on Connection day, then (MVP) their calendar links are shared to each other. If this proves popular then you can make a better UI with Calendar integration.
Lots of details to fill in here, but I would definitely try this, if it existed.
“Use it” breaks down into (a) “sign up” and then (b) “ongoing use”.
The EA Forum has an incredible edge on both dimensions—you’ve already passed these hurdles for the Forum itself.
If anyone can make an EA directory product work, it’s probably going to be the EA Forum.