I agree 100% with cylon. For me the key to getting and keeping conversations going is the ability to take the emphasis off of yourself and to place it on your audience. I had great success with an audio course by Susan Leahy on public speaking put out by The Freeway Guides that teaches just this trick. It is totally affordable and I highly recommend it. You can check it out on their site (
http://www.freewayguides.com/home.php). I did the podcast because I could download it right away.
Good luck!