The European Venture Capital Association's Symposium provided a fitting backdrop to a very interesting discussion with the guys from Shockfish, a truly innovative wireless social technology outfit from Switzerland with whom we hope to be working in the near future.

Their SpotMe system allows event attendees to instantly find interesting contacts among the audience, view all delegate profiles by physical proximity based on a 'radar' facility, set up alerts to warn you a particular contact is in range, exchange e-cards, text messaging among delegates, search by a number of criteria, and lots more besides. Each delegate is pre-registered on the conference database, and upon registration they have their photo taken electronically and are given a lightweight SpotMe PDA which they carry throughout the conference.

All the social networking happens via Shockfish's proprietary wireless technology and is a fantastic enhancement to event productivity and network building. It's also really cool!