A vague idea is some sort of mutual mentorship event across the network. Misc "brainstorming" below:

It would kind of work like match-making: let users who wish to participate list a number of topics they wish to learn more about and a number of topics where they have expertise and are willing to teach others.

This would be network-wide, so for example - lets say that I mainly participate on Stack Overflow and Electrical Engineering. I could list that I'm willing to help out mentoring various technologies featured at those sites, based on tag badges (bronze/silver/gold) that I have received. And it turn I will also list topics that I wish to learn more about, ideally something completely different on a completely different site, encourage people to explore outside their usual stomping grounds.

Then users are matched and after giving consent get access to some shared chat room, using the already available chat feature. The idea is that the main effort of learning still has to be carried out by the learner, but they could ask for help along the way, both by using the Q&A and by asking their mentor.

The mentor part could also extend to teaching site culture at the certain site, similar to the "ask a question" mentorship experiment that was carried out at SO some time ago. Maybe a lot of the infrastructure needed by this idea is already available from that experiment even, as well as valuable experience of what worked out well and what did not. Having someone experienced of the site to ask before posting would soften the blow of lots of new, clueless users flooding a small site on the network and thereby increasing moderator workload, which apparently was a bit of a problem during Winter Bash.

Also, the goal of this would be learning and increased network traffic, which has lasting value. As opposed to abusing various site mechanisms in order to gather virtual hats, only to have them taken away a few weeks later.

This could have some end goal like the mentored person posting well-received question(s)/answers about the topic at a certain site, aiming to gain a certain amount of reputation tied to the specific tag.

But the main benefits would be the way there: learning, mentoring, positive socializing and maybe getting to know other users. Most of it is in line with the Q&A mechanism and the existing purpose of the sites.

This can get expanded in numerous ways and get held multiple times. There would be some initial dev work in getting the "match-making" and topic registering parts made, but from there it shouldn't need much maintenance. Maybe give site moderators the privilege to announce certain events directed at certain topics or themes.

(I'm sure there are negative effects of this too, like increased moderator workload for supervising chats etc - when a lot of people get together, drama eventually follows. But in the spirit of brainstorming I've left negative things out, to be dealt with later should this idea become more than an embryo to something more concrete.)

A vague idea is some sort of mutual mentorship event across the network. Misc "brainstorming" below:

It would kind of work like match-making: let users who wish to participate list a number of topics they wish to learn more about and a number of topics where they have expertise and are willing to teach others.

This would be network-wide, so for example - let’s say that I mainly participate on Stack Overflow and Electrical Engineering (Stack Exchange site). I could list that I'm willing to help out mentoring various technologies featured at those sites, based on tag badges (bronze/silver/gold) that I have received. And in turn I will also list topics that I wish to learn more about, ideally something completely different on a completely different site, encourage people to explore outside their usual stomping grounds.

Then users are matched and after giving consent get access to some shared chat room, using the already available chat feature. The idea is that the main effort of learning still has to be carried out by the learner, but they could ask for help along the way, both by using the Q&A and by asking their mentor.

The mentor part could also extend to teaching site culture at the certain site, similar to the "ask a question" mentorship experiment that was carried out at SO some time ago. Maybe a lot of the infrastructure needed by this idea is already available from that experiment even, as well as valuable experience of what worked out well and what did not. Having someone experienced of the site to ask before posting would soften the blow of lots of new, clueless users flooding a small site on the network and thereby increasing moderator workload, which apparently was a bit of a problem during Winter Bash.

Also, the goal of this would be learning and increased network traffic, which has lasting value. As opposed to abusing various site mechanisms in order to gather virtual hats, only to have them taken away a few weeks later.

This could have some end goal like the mentored person posting well-received question(s)/answers about the topic at a certain site, aiming to gain a certain amount of reputation tied to the specific tag.

But the main benefits would be the way there: learning, mentoring, positive socializing and maybe getting to know other users. Most of it is in line with the Q&A mechanism and the existing purpose of the sites.

This can get expanded in numerous ways and get held multiple times. There would be some initial development work in getting the "match-making" and topic registering parts made, but from there it shouldn't need much maintenance. Maybe give site moderators the privilege to announce certain events directed at certain topics or themes.

(I'm sure there are negative effects of this too, like increased moderator workload for supervising chats, etc.—when a lot of people get together, drama eventually follows. But in the spirit of brainstorming I've left negative things out, to be dealt with later should this idea become more than an embryo to something more concrete.)