I've found that if you take a few steps around the area the person should be in and wait for people to load, then take another few steps and wait for that area to load... sometimes you can see each other. This is ridiculous to do in Ul'dah of course, run 2 steps, wait, run 2 steps, wait. Shout "Hey! I can't see you!" Get encouragement from the person, "I'm right here!" keep trying until the game crashes from sheer server fatigue of the masses of people in Ul'dah or until you return to a place that has less lag... anywhere besides Ul'dah.

Another fun strategy is to meet people at aetheryte crystals outside of the city and just keep an eye on each other when you enter Lag'dah... oops... Ul'dah.

I also look forward to 2.0.