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[pearlmiller]

A colleague of mine talked with a friend of her who works at an institution where I'll be interviewing and suggest I contact her, and told me her friend welcomed me contacting her. I just looked at my interview schedule and she is on it, granted as part of a larger panel but I wondered if I get in touch with her will that actually seem tacky? Could it seem like I am trying to subvert the process slightly and get an in for myself or is that fairly standard networking?

[der_gadfly]

Chances are that you might have reason to 'know' someone from outside a particular environment, and IMHO, it would be reasonable to shake hands with that person if and when you meet.

I knew someone from a conference, and when interviewing at their institution, and saw them at the panel, I did make an effort to greet them "Hello, We met at the XYZ conference! Nice to see you again!"

Now your situation is somewhat different: 'pre-contact', so I would be very wary. Sorry not much help here. Best of luck.

[david_perlmutter]

Not tacky at all. Nothing wrong with a note saying "Dr. Z
suggested that I contact you and I was happy to see we are scheduled to meet at the conference."
Networking and being friendly.