In times of Covid, I've found that serendipity can be found in online parties - I'm specifically referring to https://spatial.chat (no affiliation). This is able to mimic in-person social interactions in a way that it's not 10 people speaking one at a time.

Instead, you can organically form smaller groups according to their camera/avatar X,Y position (volume is inverse to distance).

In these "parties" I can meet friends of friends, who I wouldn't normally meet by myself or online. There's enough social pressure to actually listen to someone I don't know that might end up being very interesting.