In my previous 2 blogs I discussed how to organize Table-based speed networking using prime numbers, and 1:1-based networking using repeated binary sub-division. OK I didn't use those exact terms, but that is indeed what I did.
It occurs to me that for Table-based networking, there's one extra step we can do, to ensure that everyone meets everyone else, and it's illustrated below...
---
To recap, this diagram shows 25 people meeting in 5 groups (or tables) of 5. We assign a colour to each person at the table, and we provide instructions on how each colour moves between tables once all the people at the table have introduced themselves to one another. Reds stay where they are, oranges move one table clockwise, yellows move one table anticlockwise, greens move two tables clockwise, and blues move two tables anti-clockwise.
This scheme ensures that everyone in each colour group meets everyone in each of the other colour groups.
I've used stronger colours for the people who start out at the top table, to make it easier to follow where they go.
But there's one addition to the scheme described in part 1 of this blog, and that's to deal with the problem that no reds have met any other reds, no oranges have met any other oranges, etc.
How did we solve this? Well very, very easily. We've just added one final step where we gather all of the reds onto the first table, all of the oranges to the 2nd table, all the yellows to the third table, etc and we hold one last round of introductions. Then everyone has met everyone else!
Footnote: These animated GIFs were assembled from individual frames using the free Animated GIF Maker at http://gifcreator.me/. The individual frames were generated with Excel software written specifically for these blog articles.
