Rather than having seminars on polished, finished projects, I invited people who were stuck and struggling to overcome a research problem to come and do a short presentation explaining their struggles. Importantly no one would be questioned in front of an audience.

Following the four 5-10 minute #presentations everyone got free pizza...

Well, almost everyone. So many people came that 96 slices of 18-inch #pizza were insufficient.

While enjoying their #pizza, people were encouraged to speak to the presenters about any #ideas that had occurred to them. They were reminded to not be judgmental, to be #respectful and to ignore the little voice.

They were also instructed on networking etiquette, being introduced to the pacman rule (some people had not heard of it).

All four speakers had a crowd of people around them for the whole event, and all four left with new #ideas on how to solve their #problems and new contacts who might be able to #help them. I'm not allowed to share photos of the people talking, but it looked something like this.

Additionally, I overheard (eavesdropped on) 3 sets of people solving #problems between themselves that hadn't even been presented just because the session got them #talking about their own problems.

I really can't recommend this format enough.