My best bet has been to meet people at workshops:

• Class of 30 new people each time
• Assertive, inquisitive people (my kind of person) spontaneously filter themselves out because they’re the ones asking questions
• Opportunity to approach them at break times, can work in small groups
• Laid back

School canteen. You are forced to spend an amount of time sitting next to a bunch of random strangers, some will be friendship groups. You can tell if they are cool just by listening in on their conversation, and it removes any barrier that approaching them would usually be as you are already sitting next to them. Best come when the canteen is full because then there won’t be any empty tables that you’d need an excuse for not sitting at.

I think when you frequent these two activities you are almost guaranteed to bump into your kind of person eventually. Can anyone think of any other good scenarios?