There is much evidence that Faulkner may have been on to something even as it relates to human interaction and technology. While individuals may not want to foster interaction, humankind in aggregate is constantly seeking new and better ways to do so. We are seeking ways to make it's-a-small-world-after-all-think into something useful and meaningful.

Business is further seeking to leverage technology to make those relationships more productive and personal -- especially with mere acquaintances or strangers. This is manifested in the marriage of customer relationship management (CRM) systems and portability of vast storehouses of behavioral and demographic data. As people who rely on technology to tell us about those we have connections with, we may not remember details as well as in the past. Still, we are trying to make the interpersonal experience deeper. Knowing relevant information, eliminating the awkwardness of being reintroduced to someone you already know, and becoming reacquainted with people are some of the outcomes of this information. We are using technology to catch up quicker, find common points of reference for building friendships on, and even simply stay in touch better.

Still, the corporate get-together, cocktail party, conference, networking event, or even association meeting creates unnecessary anxiety for many of us. How do we use our time participating in ways that build networks, relationships, and friendships with so many people in attendance? How do organizers strengthen their communities with so much technology-induced introverted behavior? In fact, how do we use technology to enhance those events?

A small company called nTag Interactive Corporation (nTag.com) is working to do just that; building on social and technological research developed at the MIT MediaLab, nTag is working to change the way organizers, attendees, and exhibitors interact and work with each other at and following any event.

Recently, I met with CEO George Eberstadt to see his product and to discuss how it is used. Because the nTag concept is so novel, describing it is difficult without demonstrating it. The nTag is a wearable computer that hangs around your neck and can perform many functions, all focused around streamlining the human dynamics of an event.

Fun. Despite our expectations of anonymity using technology communication, nTag works to change that in a fun way. It is new, but very simple. It is sophisticated, but intuitive to all ages. And its novelty makes the exercise fun. The nTag helps accomplish the following:

• Making the people that we meet memorable. We can instantly and universally exchange electronic business cards, make notes about who we've met in real time, and find instant commonality using its match making technologies.
• Personalizing the organizer-attendee relationship. Custom agendas, updated agendas, messaging and polling are now all possible without anonymous devices or requiring the use of much heavier laptops or more generic PDAs. Personal reminders and next-event reminders are also invaluable. Personalization of exit polling is further enhanced.
• Improve networking with structure. Depending on the event and how familiar attendees may be at an event with one another, valuable networking languishes at many events. nTag makes it easier and more transparent to plan to meet people you want to meet and create real ice breakers beyond "how about the weather?"
• Reporting enhanced. The usefulness of this tool would be limited without powerful pre- and post-event reporting for each constituency in attendance. nTag wisely has implemented its tool with a powerful adjunct personal Web site for each attendee to manage the event, relationships made, and outcomes of meeting people again or for the very first time.
• Leveraging a plethora of technologies in a small form factor. nTag is based on combining RFID (radio frequency identification), infrared, push technology, and the Internet to promote active exchange, capture, and analysis of information for all perspectives of an event -- attendees, organizers, and exhibitors. It does this with minimal invasiveness and in an environment that allows user definition of privacy. The specific wearers individuality is maintained throughout the event.

Value. To appreciate nTag is to embrace the value and utility of this technology from the different viewpoints of an event. Let's look at them briefly.

• Attendees. nTag captures contact information, keep track of who is who, and becomes a steppingstone for new friendships with definitive follow ups. Thay can also communicate with other attendees, predefine who should be met and use people radar to meet or avoid targeted attendees. nTag helps recognize people, introduces people using degrees of separation concepts, and starts conversations by identifying interest commonalities.
• Organizers. nTag empowers real-time polls, making agenda information available (replacing the paper), including last-minute changes, and constantly communicates personalized event information. This increases participation and acts to engage attendees more, making them realize greater fun and value in attending. In addition, quietly taking attendance enhances the issues, topics and hot buttons that are of interest to attendees with multiple session choices. Finally because each badge can discretely identify its wearer in a crowd and cannot be forged, security is significantly improved in most settings.
• Exhibitors. nTag is much more effective than other prospect information-collection devices. It can help better identify who visited a booth, who they spoke to, and how long they hung around. This better defines the seriousness of interest with more concrete and targeted follow up.

While nTag may not be appropriate to every event, it does force all to reevaluate both our interactions with computers instead of machines and even how we interact with people. Dale Carnegie and many like him wrote and lectured extensively on the value and importance of the human bond in business and socially for success. Technology should be viewed as a tool, not a crutch, to accomplish this, and nTag is revolutionizing the thinking of how we can adopt technology as a relationship tool.

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CHAIM YUDKOWSKY, CPA, CITP, is Director of IT for the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) based in Washington, DC. He is also president of Byte of Success Inc., a technology consulting company specializing in helping small and mid-size business grow using technology. He is available for both consultation and speaking. He may be reached at cyudkowsky@byteofsuccess.com.