Last year at Shmoocon a young guy came up to me and we chatted for a few minutes. And then he said “Could you introduce me to someone that you know here?” I was dumbfounded… it’s such an obvious thing to ask in a very social setting and low risk…if I said “no” he’d just ask someone else. I decided I’m going to start doing that from now on.
The cool coda to the story is: I went to that con alone and knowing no one at all. I had met a handful of people by then but I didn’t see any of them around, and I told him as much.
And he said “OK then I’ll introduce you to some people!” I decided that I will also use that strategy if it comes up.
Never thought about that at work… I’m going to look around for some opportunities to do that now!