A hallway track means everything that happens outside the official program of an event like a meetup, seminar, conference or training. The name refers to it happening in the hallways, outside the “tracks” of official program.
Hallway track is where a lot of the impact of events happen. We come together because of the program and to listen to speakers or learn in workshops but we form relationships in informal discussions between the program, during lunch breaks, dinners or afterparties.
In Hallway track is where the magic happens, I write about why hallway track is such an important part of events.
Hallway track isn’t without issues though. Hynek Schlawack shared one in The Price of the Hallway Track. He writes about the negative impact hallway track can have if it leads to the hall being half empty during talks.
It’s positively soul-crushing to put all your love into a talk for weeks and months and then present it to an (almost) empty room.
In addition, Allen Downey participated in the Twitter discussion Hynek links in his post to mention:
I agree! Can I piggyback with a related point? The “hallway track” is most accessible to well-connected insiders. If you are not one of them, it can be discouraging to hear how great it is. If you are one of them, please help others connect.
Eric Holscher has shared two good “rules” to help out in the latter problem:
- The Pac-Man Rule states that when we stand in groups in events to chat, always leave one spot open (like Pac-Man’s mouth) so it’s easy for people to join those discussions.
- The Snowball Rule states that for every year you have attended an event, you should try to meet that many new people each day.
I encourage everyone to be active in the hallway track and especially call out for the more experienced people in the community to be proactive in making new people feel welcomed and introducing them to other people.
I have also written more of my thoughts on these in How you can make conferences better.,