2 builders who never spoke to each other

Work the guest list before the event

Read the RSVPs, search each name against your city, find people on their company team page, and walk in with a shortlist rather than a hope. Where no list is published, reconstruct the crowd from the organiser's photo albums and tagged names, brief yourself on the host organisation, and make the organiser your first conversation since they know who is worth meeting.

The method

1. 01

   Work the attendee list before a networking event: read the RSVP profiles, search each name alongside your city, find them on a company team page, and arrive with a shortlist of people to meet.

2. 02

   Make the event host your first contact, because someone who has run dozens of these knows the room and will introduce you to the people worth meeting.

3. 03

   Read up on the organisation behind the event, including local business press coverage of it, so you understand its membership before you walk in.

4. 04

   When the event publishes no attendee list, work out the crowd from the organiser's photo albums, the tagged names and who posts on their public page.

5. 05

   Judge a networking event on the audience it adds rather than clients closed on the night, since the return is a community that knows your work.

What it returned

• Dunn read newspaper coverage of his local technology council before attending their first mixer.

• The author used a metal and tortoiseshell card case, produced while everyone else dug crumpled cards out of their wallets, and replied to the compliment by asking what they were investing in

• The author contrasts a fund manager taken seriously in any outfit with someone in their early twenties needing a dark tailored suit, pocket square and polished shoes

Sources

• How Freelancers Can Make The Most Of Networking Events - Double Your FreelancingBrennan Dunn · doubleyourfreelancing.com · Don’t Come Unprepared · 2014-01-11
• The Best Networking is Not Networking - Tyler TringasTyler Tringas · tylertringas.com · 2015-04-24