Zuzana (attendee)
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How many conferences: Rarely (just one)
What Kind: huge international conference in prague – it was a yearly conference that runs different
topics (two day conference)
Why: heard about it in the radio – sounded interesting!
Reaching out to people: talking to people around me (sharing generic information)
o Interactive game the second day of the conference (at the end of the conference)
I was sorry that I missed the first evening – I missed a workshop – would have liked to interact
some more with people at the conference
Storyboard: It’s a very interesting concept
It’s very difficult for shy people like me to start a conversation with people you don’t know – it
would be a really good way to start the conversation and touch base
Hana (organizer)
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How many: A couple of Medtech conferences
How big: from 50 people to 1000 people
Why: in relation to her work (get inspired)
Last experience: couple of weeks ago within Lifescience. Assist a her collegue with a keynote talk
Smaller conference are more intimate – intimidated by going up to people with higher titles,
especially in a business context to approach each other (difficulty to just go up to other people
because they seem more important) – why are we approaching (it’s difficult to find common
ground with people you don’t know, especially approaching people with fancy titles in a business
context – there’s a fear of being rejected)
It’s so much easier when it’s a startup conference because you know the other people, you follow
them on SoMe and have some knowledge (ammunition) and its easier to talk to them because
theyre more open-minded, while medical conferences are much more formal and more fear of
approaching especially the representatives of bigger companies because you don’t want to possible
get a rejection or hurt your reputation
Storyboard: It’s a good icebreaker- meakes people more human – in a fun way, people would be
more willing to share an anecdote or be informal and lower their guards and become more human
rather than just stating your title. Share personal things that you otherwise wouldn’t.
Plamena (speaker)
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How many: last year (once a month)
Why: women in tech
What kind: biggest conference (300 people) – usually (50-100 people)
o Tech and entrepreneurs
Last experience: really good
People: I have quite a lot of experience so I am quite comfortable to approach people
Strategy: Depends on the topic
Storyboard: prepared a lot of activities to prep the participants (we are professionals but also
people). There was a lot of participants with a lot of questions (1h speed dating) – participants had
to go to each of the rooms and ask all the questions they had for 5-10 minutes.
o Fear of asking people – the activities helped to eliminate the fear of reaching out to
professionals