We've been pulling together some tips on "speed geeking" for a training Marty is doing in New Orleans this weekend. Speed geeking is a lot like speed dating, but the dates chew over technical or strategic challenges instead of life goals and turnon/offs.

Speed geeking breaks large rooms into small discussion groups, and gives training participants the opportunity to share challenges, experiences and suggestions.

Some guidelines for speed geeking:

Conversation topics:
A wide range of challenges and experiences make for great “speed geek” content. Some examples of relevant experiences dates can share: starting an organizational blog; setting up a Facebook account for his/her organization; balancing off- and online activities; managing technical challenges/divides within the office; developing a strategic communications strategy; debating the value of blogs and wikis; etc. There are also strategic reasons for choosing your “dates”; for example, if certain individuals at the meeting are underrepresented in the network for one reason or another, asking them to be “dates” can be a great way to promote them and their work. Individuals struggling with particularly difficult challenges or scenarios can also be good “dates”. Or even people who talk too much, or too little!

Tips for good conversation:

• Time is short. Provide only necessary details about your organization’s work. You can talk bigger picture after the exercise. Each participant could likely fill the entire five minutes talking about his/her work alone.
• Listen as much as you talk.
• Take notes if you have a comment or would like to follow up on something. Dates are quick, and lots of people are trying to speak. You will likely think of additional tips/questions/suggestions after each date.
• Do not pitch your organization or products. This is meant to be a brainstorming exercise, not a fundraising opportunity.
• Do not skip dates.

Date logistics:

• Decide how many people each “date” will meet at one time. The smaller the group, the better. Unlike traditional "speed dates", which are usually 1:1, "speed geeks" set one "date" up with a small groups of "daters".
• Dates could last 5-8 minutes, depending on how much set-up time and conversation you’d like each group to have. As a general rule, more than seven or eight dates can be tiring.
• Moderator should use a bell to indicate that the person presenting should stop talking and listen to feedback from the group.
• Consider rotating in multiples of two or three (each dater moves three chairs down when it’s time to switch), to prevent early eaves-dropping or scoping of other dates.

Some tips adapted from http://www.speeddating.com/faqs.php