Work the directory by type
People opens on All, which at a conference is hundreds of cards. The type chips are the tool: Speaker and Sponsor are short lists worth reading end to end; Exhibitor tells you who has a stand; Press is who to talk to if you have a story. Search is by name, so use it when you already know who you are looking for, and the chips when you do not.
The counts on the chips are real counts for this event, so a glance tells you how big each group is.
Follow first, connect second
Follow is free — no acceptance needed — and it puts someone's posts in your feed. Follow every speaker you plan to see before the day. When you connect later, you already have context from what they posted, and they may have seen you react.
Connect is a request the other person has to accept. It carries more weight and more friction. Send it when you have a reason they will recognise: you were at their session, you met at a stand, you replied to their post.
A connect request from a blank profile is easy to decline. Make sure your card says who you are.
Requests: yours and theirs
Check Connections → Received at least once a day during the event. Requests pile up there silently — there is no push, so nothing prompts you. Accept the ones you recognise; the person on the other end sees "Pending" until you do, and it reads as a no.
If someone says they added you and you cannot see them, that is where to look.
Meetings that actually happen
A meeting is proposed until every participant accepts, so:
- Propose a time you can see on the schedule — a session break, or the networking slot. Proposing over a keynote gets declined.
- Use the description. "10 minutes about the fine-tuning talk" gets accepted; a bare title does not.
- Do not reschedule casually. Rescheduling resets every acceptance, and the other person has to say yes again.
- Check Meetings → Upcoming on the day; only confirmed meetings appear there. If yours is missing, it is still proposed under All.
Meeting requests can go to anyone, but accepted connections say yes far more often.
Bookmarks as a working list
Save is not only for posts. Bookmark sessions from their detail page, people from their profile, and posts you want to come back to. Bookmarks in the drawer filters by kind, so on the day it doubles as your personal agenda and your follow-up list.
Share into a conversation
The share sheet on any post has send to a connection: it delivers the post as a direct message. It is the quickest way to say "this is the talk I meant" without copying a link. The message lands in the shared thread you already have with them.
Repost puts the original into your own feed with the source embedded. Use it for a session you want your followers to notice, not as a bookmark — a repost is public.
Hashtags for a track
Posts pick up #hashtags automatically and the feed filters by them. Agree a tag for your track or your group (#aitrack, #stand42) on the first morning and everyone's posts become findable. Trending tags for the event show under search.
Keep notifications useful
The Notifications tab lists everything: reactions, comments, follows, requests, mentions, announcements, meeting invites. It only updates while the app is open. Two habits make it work:
- Open the app at each break and clear the tab; tapping marks items read and the badge drops.
- Treat Received requests and meeting invites as the items that need an answer; the rest is information.