Geek Speed Dating

After a few false starts (where there were not enough of both geeks and hosts available at the same time, but we had a good old natter anyway) last night, outside a lovely venue called 'The Bird' in Perth, we ran our first Geek Speed Dating exercise.

Why Geek Speed Dating?

The entire Geek in Residence program was established because of the number of times I was told by arts organisations (Hosts) that they knew this technological stuff was exciting and where they needed to be going, but they just didn't have a clue where to start, what questions to ask, or even where to find these so-called "geeks". I have written previously about where to start looking for them, but after the first year of the program we still felt there was a need for a little extra help. Having personally run a huge amount of workshops and playful networking sessions, I felt that we could add a bit of extra spice to the series of trips I have been running to promote the digital program's grant opportunities.

So, after a few false starts (where there were not enough of both geeks and hosts to genuinely try the exercise, but we had a good old natter anyway) last night, outside a lovely venue called 'The Bird' in Perth, we ran our first Geek Speed Dating exercise.

The Geek Speed Dating exercise was designed really just to help the Hosts get a little more understanding of the way that Geeks think, to start to break down some of those barriers and generally for them all to meet some new people. If a perfect match is made on the spot, well, so much the better!

How it works

We gathered a balanced number of potential Geeks and Hosts, then asked the Hosts to write down a question that they felt they needed some help addressing. Then we swapped them around, so that each Host asked someone else's question to each of the available Geeks, and then gathered back at the end to share the answers they received.

This 'asking someone else's question' might seem weird, but sometimes it's easier to help someone else than it is to help yourself. It can be difficult to remove the emotional barriers (the "clutter" if you like) from a problem that you struggle with on a day to day basis. It's therefore much easier to step outside of yourself when you're trying to help someone else.

So, by asking someone else's question, the results are that you:

1. remove the barrier from overthinking or being too shy to talk about your own problem

2. see how many different answers there can be to one question

3. learn about a whole new area that might be of use to you at another time

4. will meet more new geeks (and hosts) than you knew before!

Some examples

Last night we had four Geeks and four Hosts. I didn't transcribe the entire conversation, but I will share their questions in case any of you have some smart advice you'd like to share.

• How do you create social/interactive digital media engagement in regional Australia when it is difficult to even get cellphone access?
• How can my organisation continue to expand beyond our four walls without any money?
• How can media arts explore and engage the general public in local government driven community arts programs?
• Can you do [what advice can you give around] multi-channel synched HD video works; live feeds to website; podcasts on website?

My favourite moment of the exercise was when the first Host to relay both the questions and answers back to the groups said "Asking these questions, I got a complete education" ... which, of course, I immediately tweeted :) And the hardest part? Getting them to stop talking to move on to the next geek!

So, if you're a Geek, how would you answer these questions? And if you're a Host, what questions would you ask?

Don't forget to come along to one of the other sessions to get involved yourself.