Free events in Omaha for meeting new people through organized conversations

Hi there, I'm Vlad. I'm running a series of free events in Omaha for anyone who wants to meet new people in person, have real conversations, find others who share their interests, and make friends. The event is built around short, organized conversations that begin with something you already have in common or a prepared question.

The idea is to make connecting with people in real life easier. A lot of us would like to meet new people, but the hardest part is almost always the beginning: knowing who to approach, what to say first, and whether the other person is also open to talking. This format is designed to remove that guesswork without making the conversation feel artificial.

At the event, you choose topics you are comfortable discussing and then move through several short rounds of conversation with other participants. For each round, you receive a clear starting point: either a shared interest or a prepared question. The format helps you get to the conversation, but the conversation itself is yours.

This is not a dating event or a business networking meetup. It's a new format for meeting people in a more organized way.

Why I started working on this

When I moved to Omaha about three years ago, I did not expect it to be this difficult to meet new people. I knew it would take time to adjust to a new place, but I thought that over time I would meet people and make friends here.

For a while, I thought maybe it was mostly because I was new here. Maybe I did not know the right places yet, or maybe I simply had not met enough people. But after talking with people in Omaha, I started to realize I was not the only one. Some people I met had lived here their whole lives, and they still described something similar. They wanted to meet new people, but it was not always clear where it could happen naturally, who would be open to talking, or how to begin without making it awkward.

That is what made me start thinking about this format. I wanted to create a real-life situation where people come with the same basic intention: to meet others and have real conversations. The structure is there to make the first step easier, so people are not walking into a room and trying to guess who to approach or what to say first. But once the conversation begins, it should still feel like a real conversation between two people.

What you share

You take part without giving your name, your contact information, or anything else that identifies you, and there is no profile to set up. When you arrive, you're given a badge with a color and a number, and the only thing you fill out at the event is a questionnaire about the topics you'd be comfortable discussing.

Those answers are the only thing the system holds under your badge. Other participants never see your full set of answers. During a conversation, the other person sees only the interests that overlap with their own for that round, such as a shared topic or a question to discuss. Anything beyond that is yours to share in person, if and when you want to.

If you would like to take part

If this sounds like something you would like to try, you can fill out the short form below. Filling it out does not register you for a specific event. It simply tells me that you are interested in future events, so I can contact you when I have a future event ready.

The form asks for two things:

Fill out the interest form

If you have any questions, feel free to email me at vlad@ooverlap.net.

And if you'd like to see how the event actually works, I walk through the whole process step by step here: How it works.

Thanks for reading. I hope to meet you at one of the events.