Give Yourself Some Time for Networking

Give yourself the opportunity to actually do some networking at networking meetings.

It’s not practical to talk to other group members while the meeting is in progress, it’s not good manners eithers. So, when do you actually do your networking?

Arrive to the meetings a little early and stay a little late.

It’s a great idea to arrive for networking meetings at least 15 minutes early so you can talk to people and get some actual networking in before the meeting starts.

Then plan to stay at least 15 minutes late as well.

Even if you don’t have anyone specific in mind that you want to talk to, if we all showed up a little early, there’d be plenty of people to choose from to strike up a conversation with.

And during your networking time, before and after meetings, be sure to mingle and talk to various people, rather than monopolizing one member’s time. If you have something in particular to discuss at length with another member, set up a 1:1 for a later time.

By applying this we extend the amount of talking time we get per meeting from 1 minute to up to 20 minutes (provided you are not doing all the talking). This adds lots of time to make yourself real to others and to gain reality on them.