Networking is an investment in your business

Everyone you will ever meet knows something you don’t — Bill Nye

Every week, I write an article to share my learning or discovery during my startup journey. Here is the link to my reasons for penning these articles for myself and for many others like me.

Today I attended an offline conference after 2 years. The last conference I attended was in pre-covid time, which was from the same group. It felt a nice change to travel to a physical location (though it takes 1.5 hr. one way), listen to people in person rather than on zoom call. I feel these conferences are a good platform for networking, as we meet many new people. Though sometimes, like in today’s conferences, the networking opportunities are vastly diminished due to back-to-back sessions. So, the only time left for you to talk is either during the restroom breaks or sometimes during the sessions itself. I have heard people talking in whispers with their neighbors. The latter option is not a great idea according to me. First, it disturbs other people sitting next to you, and they might just be interested in listening to the speaker than your whispers. Second, it is disrespectful to the speaker. Imagine when you start talking and the other person, instead of listening to you starts another conversation with a third person. I bet you would not like it. So refrain from doing things that you find improper when you are on the receiving end.

This leaves only the lunch break for the networking opportunity. This is also not a smooth ride, as, in the limited time, you need to stand in a queue-fill your plate with food-eat-refill (most probably)-eat-stand in another queue for dessert-eat and finally return to the hall for post-lunch sessions. Well, this is how I see lunchtime. I have seen some competent people making excellent use of this lunchtime. When I was busy gobbling the second helping of the ice cream, someone came and handed over her visiting card. Out of courtesy, I asked a few more general queries about her business. Eventually, I don’t think I will be needing her services, but she showed me a way to optimize the eating and networking time. Though, I would still prefer my ice cream over a random card dumping activity.

I strongly feel that in such forums, being a speaker gets you more visibility than just bumping into strangers and handing them the visiting cards. As a speaker, first, you are given an elaborate introduction by the emcee of the meeting. Second, you build your credibility and generate interest in others with your session. Third, people would already know you as they approach you and hence save your efforts in introducing yourself to them.

In fact, I am planning to send a LinkedIn connection request to some of the speakers that I liked at today’s conference. I will mention something about their session in my invite to make it more personal. Let’s see if that sparks their interest to accept my connection request on LinkedIn.

Overall, these conferences are useful, whether you get people’s visiting cards or get to know them via their sessions.

Today, I have put a commitment to attend at least one such conference every quarter. Also, one conference as a speaker too in a year.

Networking and talking to strangers have never been my core strength. But this is also one role that you cannot shy away from after becoming an entrepreneur. By attending these conferences, I will get more opportunities to get over my shy nature and eventually help me get more comfortable in talking to strangers and in pitching my business. I am already seeing some positive changes in myself in the past few days. As I am pushing myself more and more to grab opportunities to talk to strangers. Earlier, I used to feel awkward asking people for favors. But not it comes more naturally to me. Like the other day, I could write a message to my LinkedIn connections to enquire about a project management consulting opportunity. This gives me enough proof that I am on the right path. The more I meet or interact with people and talk about my business, the better I will get at networking and finding new leads.

Wishing everyone a great week with some interesting networking opportunities.

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