Whenever I meet a couple at a dinner party or social situation, I'll ask them, "How did you guys meet?" It keeps them talking for a while, and everyone loves to hear the story of how a couple met and fell in love!
What are your small talk tricks?
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Here in Seattle... Talking about the weather can kill some time.
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Depends on the setting, but usually I'll start with, "so how do you know [the host]?" - that's usually a good icebreaker.
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Asking about the kids is a good way to strike up a conversation, most social events I go to these days are family events, so making a (positive) comment or asking a question about someone's child is a good way to start. From then it's easy to lead on to child related topics (what daycare do use, how do you like it, what schools are you thinking about, what playgroups do you go to etc etc).
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I ask if they're from the area. In Charlotte, most people are from another part of the country. There's sone natives but they're few and far between. Either people grow up and move here or grow up here and leave. So I'll ask about it.
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If they have kids, then I ask about them first.. like how old, etc. If not, about how they know the host and how they met. Where are they from? If they just answer and don't ask anything back I move on elsewhere, slowly... Haha!
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I just start off with generic questions, and from their answers, ask more questions lol and just hope that they reciprocate so that we can have an actual conversation!
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If it is someone totally new, I ask for biographical details. Depending on the situation and the person, I'll pick a random article I read in the New Yorker and go with it.
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In this city it's rare to find someone who is from here so usually the "where did you grow up?" question gets people talking.
This city is really bad for people meeting and the first thing they ask is "what do you do for a living?" so I try to avoid that question. I don't like that people are so work focused and defined by their career.
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Kids...everyone wants to talk about their children
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I always look for connections! Where did you grow up, where did you go to school, etc.
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I have lots of things to talk about, none of which are about my kid, I hate hearing about and talking about kids!
Time abroad, books i am reading, travel, celebrities, lol.
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