and gave them a list of 36 questions that, one by one, they were both asked to answer openly over an hour "in a kind of sharing game". Even before the hour was up, respondents typically said they felt unusually close to the person they had shared questions with. But would the "fast friends" experiment also work with more worldly senior executives and entrepreneurs? Ever since I discovered the experiment three years ago, I have been looking for an opportunity to put it into practice among a group of curious and open-minded strangers. I found my opportunity at WPP's recent Stream conference in Athens -- or, rather, its "unconference", where the programme is created on the hoof entirely by the participants. Get together four-hundred top creatives, business founders, investors and makers -- the thinking goes -- and the resulting inspiration and idea-sharing will be not only a ton of fun, but will also benefit Martin Sorrell's WPP by keeping its employees and clients impeccably informed. The formula works beautifully - talents such as Esther Dyson , Rory Sutherland and the team behind the Vice media empire ran sessions on topics ranging from personal data-tracking and the future of the book to the secrets of lucid dreaming. "Take part in a psychological experiment, and make friends fast," I scribbled on the whiteboard where session hosts competed for delegates' attention. The brave 18 people curious enough to show up discovered that this was no false advertising: the experiment really did promote incredibly