Swapcard is an app used at EAG(x) conferences for keeping track of the agenda and scheduling 1:1s. Swapcard is less than ideal for some purposes, so EAG(x) organisers usually share a spreadsheet with attendee data with participants.
I looked at few hundreds profiles for recent EAGx and here is what I learned:
Profile writing tips
Mass reading process
Swapcard woes
Profile writing tips
fill it out sooner rather than later, this way more people can see up-to-date data
use Job title and Company to express meaningful information, even if it is not a perfect fit for your situation
these fields are (the only ones except name and photo) visible on the attendees view
put more specific things on your profile, e.g. some sample topics in your area of expertise/interest that you are happy to talk about
summarise external links (e.g. to bio on another website) so the content is indexable
unless your goal is to make them less searchable, then put details you want less discoverable behind a link, e.g. to a google doc
maybe avoid putting references to specific EAG(x), otherwise if data is not updated for new EAG(x) profile feels abandoned
controversial: if emojis fit your style, they can make for nice variation in paragraphs of text
🤖🧠🧟♀️🦐🐁🐔☄️🧬
Mass reading process
Caveats
Spreadsheet data is not perfect. Some data can be missing, some can be not up to date. This is probably only worth it if you want to look at hundred(s) of profiles, it requires upfront time costs.
Opinionated Swapcard tips
Intro
Swapcard is an app used at EAG(x) conferences for keeping track of the agenda and scheduling 1:1s. Swapcard is less than ideal for some purposes, so EAG(x) organisers usually share a spreadsheet with attendee data with participants.
I looked at few hundreds profiles for recent EAGx and here is what I learned:
Profile writing tips
Mass reading process
Swapcard woes
Profile writing tips
fill it out sooner rather than later, this way more people can see up-to-date data
use Job title and Company to express meaningful information, even if it is not a perfect fit for your situation
these fields are (the only ones except name and photo) visible on the attendees view
put more specific things on your profile, e.g. some sample topics in your area of expertise/interest that you are happy to talk about
summarise external links (e.g. to bio on another website) so the content is indexable
unless your goal is to make them less searchable, then put details you want less discoverable behind a link, e.g. to a google doc
maybe avoid putting references to specific EAG(x), otherwise if data is not updated for new EAG(x) profile feels abandoned
controversial: if emojis fit your style, they can make for nice variation in paragraphs of text
🤖🧠🧟♀️🦐🐁🐔☄️🧬
Mass reading process
Caveats
Spreadsheet data is not perfect. Some data can be missing, some can be not up to date.
This is probably only worth it if you want to look at hundred(s) of profiles, it requires upfront time costs.
Process
Download the spreadsheet (File → Download → Comma Separated Values (.csv))
Programmatically extract profiles of interest by specific criteria
e.g. people who have expertise in “AI safety technical research” _but not_ in “AI strategy & policy”
or people who work for specific company
Sort profiles by specific criteria
e.g. length of raw text fields — if there is more information, it is easier to decide if you’d be interested in reaching out to that person
Convert profile data into more readable representation
e.g. change fields order/drop some fields
Now you can review profiles most relevant to you with the most important information a glance!
Implementation
I used python via PyCharm to read CSV, filter, and convert to Markdown, here is exactly how. Then I used Obsidian to review profiles.
LLMs are great at writing filtering functions, once you describe data and your criteria, and tweaking markdown generation.
Swapcard woes
Swapcard is only available online, no cache in the app
it would be nice to work on setting up meetings on a flight
infinite scroll for attendees
hard to know how many people fit your search criteria
not clear how to mark people you’ve seen
can one do better than filter by first/last name and remember letter where you stopped?
filtering criteria allow only _or_
limited sorting options (default, first/last name, registration date)
requires clicks to see longer text fields