From the WSJ Opinion Archives
LEISURE & ARTS
People Spotters--
European Gizmo
Tells Who's Who
Business cards? Ha, they're a thing of the past.
This week, about 1,200 members of the business and political elite will flock to the resort town of Davos, Switzerland, to attend the World Economic Forum. They will meet people, make deals and exchange expertise. But networking is challenging even at the summit of careers; a newcomers' guide to the annual gathering advises bringing plenty of business cards because many people find they run out.
Last year, I attended what the Swiss call their "other Davos," the International Students Committee Symposium at St. Gallen University. Davos may have glitz and notables ranging from Bill Gates to Colin Powell, but St. Gallen has the edge on efficiency and conference technology.
Attendees still get name tags, but they are also handed a clever alternative called Spotme, a pocket-sized wireless device that stores data on every conference attendee. As I registered, my digital picture and any information I wanted others to know about me were entered into the system. Using radio frequency detection, Spotme's "Scan Neighborhood" function could tell me the names of people around me in two categories: those within 10 feet and those within 10 to 30 feet. If I clicked on a person's name, it called up his photograph and contact info. And Spotme could be programmed to vibrate when a key contact walked by. I could also send e-mails to other Spotme holders.
Unfamiliarity with the technology led some people to bury the devices in their tote bags. Others viewed Spotme as a toy. "A Game Boy for adults," sniffed Richard Rahn, a Washington economist. But some delegates were fascinated by it. They could be seen intently using it the way Mr. Spock might examine alien life forms with his tricorder in "Star Trek." "My English isn't always the best, so this helps me gather my thoughts before I go up to someone to shake their hand," an attendee from Turkey told me.
Others raised privacy concerns. "It's a bit creepy to have monitoring devices scanning you all the time," said Leon Louw of South Africa. Indeed, one female participant told me she could imagine the Spotme making her feel like a captive in a singles' bar being scrutinized by interested men. But Adrian Hilti, one of the young whizzes who created Spotme, says anyone can become invisible at any time by activating a "cloaking device" that masks his location. Less than 10% of participants bothered doing that.
The gadget is not without its flaws. Its high cost meant conference attendees couldn't take their Spotmes home with them. At one point, I approached a wall overlooking a courtyard and the Spotme "radar" told me people were close by. But they were beneath me, and I would have had to take a flying leap over the retaining wall to have any hope of a chat.
For now Spotme technology is available only in Europe--in the U.S., the military has monopolized the frequencies it would use. Mr. Hilti's Zurich-based Shockfish Communications (www.shockfish.com) hopes to make a modified version for the U.S. market.
But Corbin Ball, a Seattle consultant on conference technology, expects delays in Spotme crossing the ocean. He predicts that a wireless Internet system called Wi-Fi will enliven meetings first, with over 600 Marriott and Hilton hotels now being outfitted for the service. With a range of up to 300 feet, Wi-Fi can provide a communications network for both conference rooms and hotel lobbies. Audiences could anonymously give immediate feedback to conference speakers or organizers. "More and more power will be handed to the audience," says Mr. Ball. "The days of talking heads just lecturing are numbered."
Mr. Ball predicts another popular innovation will be "smart badges." Anyone registering at a conference will be issued a badge with a large identification number. A Personal Digital Assistant the size of a credit card will contain contact information for up to 1,000 attendees. Anyone approaching someone can simply enter his ID number and get basic information. If the two hit it off, they can swap personal access numbers that unlock additional contact information. Since attendees will be able to take their low-cost PDAs home with them, there won't be any need to fish business cards out of suit pockets at the end of a trip.
Meeting planners promise that all these new devices will liberate conference-goers from their social insecurities and the reams of paper that can attach themselves to attendees. But that's not likely, at least not right away.
At the ISC conference in St. Gallen, I noticed a Swiss journalist looking distressed as he turned in his Spotme device at the registration desk. "What's wrong?" I asked. "I've met so many people here with this damn thing that I can't make sense of who I've quoted in my notebook," he said. "This meeting just shows that quantity is no substitute for quality." The brave new world of conference technology may make networking more efficient, but there remains no substitute for relationships built up over time, and on trust not chitchat.
Mr. Fund is a columnist for OpinionJournal.com.
