At the PSFK Conference New York 2010, we provided ‘conversation pins’ to guests to wear at the event. Illustrated by Hugh Macleod and produced by BusyBeaver, there were 20 versions of the pins including ‘Curious’, ‘Mayor’ and ‘Newbie’.

The hope was that strangers on the day would notice similar pins on each other and used them as an excuse to introduce themselves. This ‘social object‘ idea worked very very well and the coffee and lunch breaks were full of buzz as people met each other.