For men, the more I asked the more they assumed that I had some idea on the subject and was keen to know about them.

How long have you been doing that?

How did you get into doing that?

You learn a bit more about their history which might be helpful and more interesting, and you get off the business into the personal which might give you more connections, such as schools, towns lived in, family, countries visited, etc.

People like to talk about themselves, especially if it is something they are passionate about. Such questions allows them to talk about their passion subjects, or duck the question with a simple “since school” or “always were interested.