Several weeks ago, my team and I got back to my workplace from Lisbon. Lisbon is an ancient city of sunshine, ocean breeze, and seafood. This Portuguese capital city is a well-known tourist spot and a place with a prominent and long history. However, my team and I weren’t there for touristic purposes.
Lisbon is lucky enough to host the biggest tech event in the world – WebSummit. This event brings together thousands of startups, investors, industry leaders, and geeks. It’s the perfect place to widen your network and find some useful connections. If done right, you can make convert small talk into collaboration.
How to get the most out of any networking event
Using our most recent experience at WebSummit as an example, I’ve decided to share some key insights on how to capitalize on networking events.
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Build trust: discover, and if sharing the same values, start cooperation
There were many masterclasses and discussions at the event. Most notably, the CEO of Binance, Changpeng Zhao said: “It’s up to you, you can not believe us, but just do research and feedback and try your own experience. Then build trust”
We can learn a lot from these words. Don’t try to sell something by aggressively pitching and using all known sales techniques. Instead, focus on discovering your interlocutor, and telling them your story. Better keep it simple. I believe that aggressive selling is already a thing of the past. People love relationships, and true stories, especially proven ones.
Train communication skills
Nobody is born a good communicator. However, you can train this skill. For me, communication is mostly about listening, not talking. By listening to what people are talking about, you will more effectively spot their needs, fears, excitement, or doubts. For example, if your companion talks about hiring troubles, you can ask him what is the biggest issue and check if you can solve it.
Once you talk, you should be able to describe your passion concisely and meaningfully. Pretty difficult, right? Think about all possible ways to describe your product. One line, one-minute pitch, the story of the idea, user cases… This allows you to clearly present the idea of the product or service you provide. Look how Payoneer used a video format to describe its benefits! It’s certainly worth watching!
Small talks make a difference
Let’s be clear. No one likes to be a sales target, and no one wants to be an annoying salesman.
Small talk is a great way to initiate a sale or discover things about people. You can ask others how they like an event, what was the most interesting thing they saw, how is the weather, and what was their favorite speech. Later, you can discuss food, sports, games, art, kittens, and so on. Hold the storyline to be remembered as a person, it’s always about P2P!
In case your counterpart wants to talk directly about business, let’s do it, you certainly know how to lead such a discussion!
Use Stuff that makes others remember you!
Videos, PDFs, and business cards may all play a role, but to help you grab more attention use something that helps to stand out. Be creative when it comes to presentation materials. Be advanced, if you don’t want to get lost in a crowd of acquaintances. People use coins, tokens, and NFC business cards to help make a lasting impression..
Waiting in a line? Well, a good chance to network!
As a joke, we started calling the WebSummit a ‘QueueSummit’ because of the long lines everywhere to enter the event premises. The truth is that waiting in a line is a great opportunity to network with other people. Do not waste this time, use it as an opportunity to network!
Look around yourself. Scan the area and use eye contact to start a conversation, or note some interesting details of your neighbor’s appearance. You need any excuse to start a conversation. I take notice of other people’s specific fashion choices (my guilty pleasure!), and then approach with some Also, you can use the ‘right-hand rule’: If you get lost during the event, and you don’t know who to talk to, turn right and talk to the first person you see. In conclusion,opportunities are everywhere, including a line!
Make notes – free your mind!
In order to free your mind and stay focused during the day, you need to put everything down on paper. That’s how you’ll be able to memorize more information and keep your brain from overloading.
Little advice: take notes by audio recording. Do this after each meeting to ensure you’ve remembered everything from the meeting.
Wisely plan your time!
The pace of networking events can knockout even an experienced negotiator off guard. You must be sure that your schedule is productive, but not overwhelming.
In other words, try to arrange some meetings before the event, but leave some time for breaks between them, and for ongoing networking. The extra time between meetings helps to ensure you will be neither late nor exhausted. Also, note conference premises are typically huge, so it’ll take time to find some places!
Pay attention to your outfit
This is the most underestimated part. A light and gentle outfit with comfy shoes is yourbest friend during any possible event.
The reason is simple. If you don’t feel comfortable physically, your confidence and charisma will suffer. The best option is to choose a business casual style, both comfy and good-looking. Note that this part is not applicable for events with strict dress-code
Dreams come first, implementation – second
Once again. Every product starts with a dream! It’s obvious people love to get asked about how they came up with their startup idea, and what made them build software that solved this or that problem. It was one of the main questions I asked, and you know what? The answers did inspire me!
Get interested in the ideas and opinions of others, and they will gladly work with you.
Summary
Any networking spot is about good communication! Learn to ask and listen. All the rest are supporting factors and ways to arrange your thinking. I believe that genuine interest makes a difference, and people naturally notice it! Note, it takes time to build confidence and gain the necessary experience, so be kind to yourself!
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