How To Meet New People And Gain New Ideas

Spark New Ideas With Face-To-Face Conversations

After a few years of hybrid and online meet-ups, more opportunities for face-to-face encounters are making a comeback. Here’s where to go to meet new people, learn from others’ experiences and spark new ideas.

Here’s where to go to meet new people, learn from others’ experiences and spark new ideas.

20 x 20

Imagine if all presentations could be done in less than seven minutes, with striking visuals and minimal text – and still enlighten you with several new ideas.

That’s exactly how speakers are required to deliver in PechaKucha-style presentations. The rapid-fire presentation format calls for 20 slides that automatically advance, with just 20 seconds of commentary per slide.

When Ms Christine Chong, head of digital storytelling studio Tusitala, wanted to run an event bridging the arts and technology, she looked to the PechaKucha format to make the information sharing fun.

Anyone can use the PechaKucha format for a sharing session – two more ArtsxTech PechaKucha events will be held on June 22 and August 24. PHOTOS: Courtesy of Tusitala

“The strict time limit allows us to feature a diverse range of speakers, and audiences get exposure to different aspects of the topic in a short time,” she said. In the ArtsxTech PechaKucha event organised by Tusitala and multidisciplinary label Feelers, the speakers came from sectors ranging from 3-D printing and computer science to theatre and installation art, and the guests included cybersecurity consultants and poets.

Breakfast Lectures

For busy bees and extroverts who’d rather save evenings for friends and family, here’s a way to kick-start your day: with free breakfast, new faces and new ideas.

Creative Mornings is a lecture series with more than 200 local city chapters worldwide. Over breakfast bites, people chit-chat with other creative and curious folks before listening to a speaker present on a theme.

PHOTOS: Creative Mornings Singapore

Each session has a local personality matched with the global theme of the month. In Singapore, speakers have ranged from jewellery designer Carolyn Kan (speaking on the theme of time), The Woke Salaryman founders (on procrastination), Orang Laut SG storyteller Firdaus Sani (on corruption) to businessman Ho Kwon Ping (on revolution).

Follow the Creative Mornings Singapore page for upcoming talks and videos of past talks.

How To Know Where To Go

Event listings platforms like Eventbrite, Peatix, Mirkout, and MeetUp are a great way to discover what’s happening and where people are meeting. Besides one-off events to attend, you can also find communities of interests you can follow.

Subscribe to the National Parks Board e-newsletters for the latest updates on parks- and nature-related festivals, talks and exhibitions. For more literary events, subscribe to the National Library Board (NLB)’s Literary Highlights mailing list.

Wanderlusters Unite

Caravanserai is named after the meeting spaces in North African and Middle Eastern deserts where groups of travellers cross paths, engage in trade and find rest.
PHOTOS: Caravanserai

Many people travel to meet others and get exposed to different cultures. With NLB’s LearnX community Caravanserai, you can connect with fellow travel enthusiasts from the comfort of home (over Zoom) or in person at a local library.

Think of it as a hybrid virtual tour before the real travel adventure.

During Caravanserai meet-ups, strangers become friends over the sharing of travel tips and experiences, and discover places beyond the typical tourist hangouts. Previous session topics include the best train travel journeys, weekend getaways and language learning adventures.

Follow the Caravanserai Meetup page for more details.

Where Books Are Human

Imagine a Reddit “Ask Me Anything” session, except it’s face to face with everyday people.

The Human Library concept creates safe spaces for dialogue between people with vastly different backgrounds. Every individual is a “book” filled with rich and unique personal stories. The participants move in small groups and move around the room to listen to several human books share their experiences for a common theme or topic.

Other Human Library events in Singapore have covered career advice, mental health, and the lived experiences of often invisible, marginalised communities. Many take place in actual library spaces, such as Old is Gold, which featured seniors as human books.

During the pandemic, Human Library Singapore ran virtual sessions. Since November 2022, it is gradually returning to physical events. Keep up with the latest happenings via their Instagram account or mailing list.