The Leading in a Connected World conference has kicked off in Charlottesville, Virginia at the University of Virginia. Today’s appetizer is an SNA tutorial, which I am attending just for the benefit of being in the room (and making connections). Rob Cross, Andrew Parker, and Valdis Krebs envisioned that about 20 or so people would want to attend the workshop. Over 85 people are here, soaking up the language of networks.

The University of Virginia was founded by Thomas Jefferson, whose vision was an “academical village” of learners, scholars, and “visitors” was realized on this gorgeous campus (which is treating us to a lovely warm and sunny fall day). The old part of the university, the original “academical village” has 47 student dorm rooms facing the “lawn.” These rooms are highly coveted and awarded to students based on a stiff competition. Rob Cross, not surpisingly, has been mapping some of the networks here and introduced the afternoon by showin his map of the “go-to” network for information among the students who live in the village.

Some familiar faces here, from the old IKM (Institute for Knowledge Management) days, including Melissie Rumizen and Giora Hadar. Gennnova and advanced thinking colleagues, along with Rob and Andrew and Valdis Krebs, ground me in a sea of new faces.

Andrew did a quick (1hour!) tutorial on UCINET; Valdis did short demo of Inflow, If I hadn’t already been using both of these, I think it might have been hard to keep up. The power of the method really comes through nonetheless. An attendee asks how do we get people connected quickly? Valdis says, “people aren’t routers.” It’s about what conversations you want to create.