10 tips for networking at conferences Tuesday, May 01, 2007

Andrew Chen has some good tips for networking at conferences even if you don't know anyone else going. It's common sense if you've done it before, but otherwise take note as it will help.

I would add one though, which is don't hog or latch onto one person. You aren't doing either of you a favour and it isn't rude to move on.

Try it at Internet World in London this week!

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Networking for People Who Hate Networking Friday, March 23, 2007

Penelope Trunk has a good article entitled on "Networking for People Who Hate Networking"

Networking is a vital skill and shouldn't be shirked. Of course, it seems to come easier to some people. But that's partly a mental attitude. "What if they don't want to talk to me or don't like me" or "we have nothing in common" are common concerns/fears. But let me make the following observation - most people will talk about themselves if given the opportunity. So, if in doubt, ask questions about them to get the conversation going.

You can have enormous fun and learn a huge amount doing it. Walk into a room of people you don't know - well that represents a lot of new stuff you're going to learn and new potential friendships.

I'm a strong believer that you must network only on the basis of a fair trade, which I've blogged about before. By this I mean you can't go into it expecting to be "taking" from everyone you meet. Sadly too few people adhere to this and go into conversations along the lines of "how can you help me".

As a minimum you have to "give" something too and it may be you spend a whole evening just "giving" e.g. introducing people to each other or making suggestions as to who a person should contact. Let me assure you, this is a great reputation to have and the returns normally come back several fold.

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10 Stupid Mistakes Made by the Newly Self-Employed Thursday, March 08, 2007

Steve Pavlina has an interesting post entitled "10 Stupid Mistakes Made by the Newly Self-Employed". Don't agree with all of it but one important point is worth re-enforcing

1. Selling to the wrong people.

I've talked about this before - you can waste much time chasing down the "wrong" sales prospects i.e. people who will never buy for whatever reason.

But as important is Steve's point on "partners":

Just because someone is interested in doing business with you doesn’t mean you should accept. In my first year in business, I probably said yes to at least 50% of the people who approached me with a potential business relationship. I wasted a lot of time pursuing deals that were too much of a stretch to begin with. I accepted lunch invitations from random business people who just wanted to “see if there’s a way we could do something together.” Virtually none of them made me a dime. If you think a meeting is pointless, it probably is. Don’t network with random people just because you think you’re supposed to network. Today I accept such invitations less than 1/10 as often. If an offer doesn’t excite me right away, I usually decline or ignore it. Most relationships simply aren’t worth pursuing. Learn to say no to the weak opportunities so you have the capacity to say yes to the golden opportunities.

It's very easy to fill you day with meetings. You need to consider each one to say is it likely that this meeting will advance my business. Sure, serendipity can play a part and I set aside time for these at events like OpenCoffee. However, if you want to "explore", do it in a phone/skype call which is far more efficient or better yet agree to meet up at something like OpenCoffee so that you can do a 10-15 min to open a discussion - if there's potential emerging then proceed, if not then drop it fast but always on good terms.

Perversely, if you look at VC stats, then as an industry we have to do 10 business reviews for every one investment. That appears to be a lot of unproductive meetings in hindsight, albeit I confess that I normally learn something from everyone of them, even if it just relates to fine tuning my filter.

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High-Performance Social Networking - Part I: The 8 Basic Networking Styles Wednesday, January 10, 2007

I confess I did glaze over a little with this piece which is almost a scientific analysis of networking.

In essence, if you network you've got people you've just met but have yet to do much with (not figured out where to take things); people you're actively talking with regularly; and your black book of old friends/colleagues/acquaintances who get activated from time to time when something relevant pops up.

Sometimes people move quickly into the black book, after an initial flurry, but that's often because you are trying to churn through lots of ways you might collaborate as you get to know the person before becoming more selective about your discussions.

The piece did prompt me to think how much easier it is to keep in touch with a larger network thanks to technology. For instance, I have a large number of people in my IM contacts and it's quick and easy to say hi etc when they come online and strike up a casual conversation (what I think of as the coffee machine chat in some cases).

For me, IM has replaced email, which is a more impersonal but still useful occasionally, albeit it's somewhat unconventional to email with no reason.

Reading blogs of friends/acquaintances is a great way to remain informed about what they are up to (haven't got into Twitter yet - not sure I care what people are up to every minute!).

I realise that I rarely just ring someone up for a chat/gossip. This is something I perhaps did 10 years ago, back when the thought of writing letters seemed bizarre.

Perhaps the only thing that hasn't been replaced by technology though is the chance meeting. I confess I love working in the City ("Square Mile"). Its' fabulous history aside, it remains a remarkably "small" community in many ways and remarkably incestuous. Everyday, it's a great delight to bump into people you know in the business community as you walk between meetings. It was for that reason that I abandoned getting cabs around the City - the few moments saved between meetings was usually at the expense of chance meetings as you walked between locations. Most places in the City can be easily walked to in 10 minutes or so. Not only is it better for my health, but has the potential to be better for my wealth as chance meetings convert people from black book to current!

I'm sure I am not alone in this experience.

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