Social media and serendipity

I went to an event in Basingstoke yesterday - Futurology 2013 - about what’s around the corner for business from a technology perspective in the coming few years.

One of the speakers, Ian Hughes (aka epredator), talked about the work he is doing in Second Life and other online social environments. One of the comments he made really struck a chord…

He had a scenario of an online meeting in Second Life on screen, with people from different nationalities, all discussing something work related and mentioned the phrase “serendipitous conversations”.

I’d never really thought about it before but this is what the web is becoming - for me anyway - a series of serendipitous meetings. I have recently started to meet/follow people online that I wouldn’t otherwise met. eg.

Garri and I started talking via an online forum about holiday properties about 2-3 years ago.
I have had brief conversations with Jason and Sarah via Twitter as ideas get bounced.
I met Kevin through Twitter and then in real life when it turned out his business is about 200m from my own.

Happy accidents happen everyday - online and offline - in business and in your life in general.

So, if anyone ever asks, “yeh, but what’s the chances of that happening to me?” I’d have to respond… “pretty high if you get in the mix”.

The world is getting smaller and connections with real people just like you are easier to make than ever before.

I was even having a Twitter conversation with Ian during one of the other presentations before I had to shoot off and we are now connected via Twitter.

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