Network If You Can Get It

 

Another day and another invitation to sit in a room full of people I don’t know.

In the past few weeks, I have been invited to attend several networking events. Is it because I am a great conversationalist and stunningly popular? No, it’s because networking is all the rage at the moment.
As a small business owner, who happens to be a woman, a mother and a part-time company director, which event(s) do I attend? Well, the obvious choice would be the one with the free booze, no joining or membership fee, and the place where I’ll get the biggest return on my investment, which, in this case, is my time.
However, for the purposes of this article, and because I don’t get out much, I attended various sessions to see whether I could grow my business and make some meaningful contacts and leads. I give my verdict on three of the most memorable sessions.
At my first event, I had a delicious breakfast as a reward for putting lip-gloss on and being ready to greet the world at 7am. I attended a structured group who meet fortnightly and whose sole purpose is to hand out referrals to others around the table. There was an ‘educational’ slot, a bit of fun (although not for me as I don’t do humour first thing in the morning) and a request to make a $650 contribution to join the group if I wanted to become a member. I am still thinking about that one. However, I did meet a man who might have some work for me in 2011; so maybe, just maybe, it was worth showing up.
The second network session was an evening affair. We had a talk on what networking is not, which was extremely informative, although the advice about being selfless and not talking ‘me, me, me’ didn’t exactly sit comfortably with the self-promotional concept of networking. By the end of the evening, I had learnt that networking involves standing up, talking to a limited number of people, but having meaningful conversations with them, and that quality outweighs quantity when it comes to the collection of business cards. I have no leads to report on yet.
The third event was in complete contrast to the ‘quality’ philosophy of the previous event. Here, the concept of being a ‘network whore’ was introduced – my words and not theirs, I hasten to add. Work the room, baby, meet as many people as you can in two hours, give out your whole stack of 500 cards and collect at least the same number from everyone else there. Although I have yet to pick up any new business from this session, it did provide me with a laugh. I was chatting to a lady who actually bent down to talk to me. OK, so I’m five feet one inch, but bending down to talk to me! She patted my stomach before walking away, which reminded me that I really need to buy a t-shirt that says, ‘I’m fat, not pregnant’.
Emily Smart
www.storymarketing.co.nz