I’ve been to a lot of networking events during my career; some good, some bad.
A few years ago I significantly reduced the number of networking events I attended when it became apparent that most of them were becoming oversaturated with salespeople more interested in convincing me I should give them my money than in listening and learning about my organization and its objectives.
With all due respect to sales and marketing folks; the best are those who listen, not those who love to hear themselves talk and believe that the more people they pitch, the more likely they are to eventually strike gold. I would prefer to have a conversation with one person, who may be a solid lead, then 10 people who are giving me their business cards just to shut me up.
So I began to assume that all networking events were filled with the same types of sales people I had previously encountered. Therefore, I all but stopped attending them, unless I knew the right people would be in the room or my presence was required.
I compensated for attending less networking events by becoming more involved on committees and boards, which I saw (and still see) as a great way to network while developing strong professional relationships. It requires more work for sure, but it also helps strengthen business and management skills.
However, a few days ago I attended my first speed networking event put on by DC Councilman Harry Thomas’ office. While I was not particularly looking forward to it for the reasons I mentioned, I found it to be highly beneficial. Why? Because the format forced every person in the room to spend at least 5 minutes with every other person in the room! Were there some people who fit the negative “sales guy” stereotype? Sure. But there were MORE people who had a product/service they were passionate about and who were also willing to learn about my business and objectives. If I sat across from someone whose business had no synergy with mine (and there were a few), we simply got to know one another until it was time to switch tables. I walked away from the event with a half dozen contacts I will likely follow up with because there appears to be a mutual benefit to us working together. And that’s the key to effective networking: recognizing that working together may benefit both parties.
While I’m not suggesting that all networking should be done via a speed networking format, it did give me a renewed sense of hope in attending future networking events. It also helped me recognize that perhaps the previous problems I had with networking were not necessarily due to the rooms being filled with the wrong people; but possibly that I was not effectively engaging the RIGHT people.
