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Life as we know it is slowly coming back.
Businesses are starting to send their staff members back to the office. Meetings are face to face again and events are going ahead.
Who has been missing networking events? I know we have here at Resolver HQ! The team is looking forward to attending our first in person event next week!
Networking at industry events really can enhance your career. Making connections with those either within or parallel to the industry can only serve you well in addition to the inspiration, motivation and learnings that can come from these types of functions.
2020 aside, we have attended a lot of conferences and networking functions over the years, and in that time we have learnt that networking is much more than showing up for free food and passing out business cards.
It's about meeting people and sharing what you do and learning about them whilst making contacts and fact finding that will help you in the future.
This can seem daunting, especially if you don’t attend these events on a regular basis but it can be very rewarding if you embrace the benefits.
Here are our tips for networking at industry events:
Stop Attending EVERY event – don’t waste your time, do your research and make sure you can benefit from the function. Is it an area of the industry that will increase your knowledge, skill set or abilities? Can you learn from attending? Will there be people there you could do business with? Is it in a realistic geographical location to where you do business? And is it relevant to the industry you work in?
Don’t be someone you’re not - you will meet a variety of people at different stages of their careers. All of them incredibly interesting people. Be yourself and stay authentic, people deal with people so if you want your new contacts to work with you make sure you show the real you.
Don’t collect business cards and make promises of catching up or connecting on social media if you don’t plan to. As soon as you leave the event connect with everyone you met on LinkedIn and pop them a personalised one line email letting them know you enjoyed meeting them
Don’t stand around being quiet – It is overwhelming walking into a room of strangers, and it is easy to hang back and observe. A pro tip for you is to walk up to someone else that is standing alone and introduce yourself, they will be so relieved that someone has spoken to them and it instantly takes you from standing alone swirling your drink, to looking like you are well connected
