Conference 'chit chat'?!!!?

Does anyone else find the 'small talk' you have to make during work courses/conferences/workshops etc with the other delegates agonising?!!
You know, when you take a tea break, and everyone gathers around and does all that networking?!! You don't know these people at all, but now you've got to share a coffee and biscuit with them?
I've got to go to a 2 day workshop tomorrow and I dread the breaks!! I'm one of those people who is always standing at the edge of the room pretending to have a text message!

You're not alone - I always feel exactly the same! I usually play it by ear and just chat along with them (rather than thinking beforehand what I'm going to say, which never works out well somehow!)
But I usually end up wondering what I was worried about, cos they're normally quite nice!

Idle chit chat is horrible but as you don't know the people you may find they are as bored with the breaks as you, perhaps you could make idle conversation about idle chit chat and see if you can get a bit of humour going.

There is no regulation about "idle chit-chat". Tonight, make a list of conversation starters:

Recent movies, music, books, tv programs, the latest gov't scandal, whatever. Make the chit-chat interesting.

Most people are in the same boat so please remember that. They are all meeting new people for the first time (probably) and having the same sort of feelings as you are. You could try putting one of them at their ease (which in turn would give you a chance of conversation) by saying how difficult it is to break the ice in the break period, or you could put your views forward about the lecture you had just had and ask for their views. You will have then started the ball rolling and can feel proud of yourself instead of shying away in the corner making people feel you don't want to talk to them!