Is there a better way to network? Building a collaborative tech community.

What we’re all trying to do is to find people who are useful to us professionally and share common interests. They say it’s not what you know, it’s who you know, but how many people do you know well?

Professional events are like speed dating, great for some, but not favourable to those who want a deeper conversation.

Whenever I network at conferences there seems to be a standard format: 

X: “Hi I’m x”

Y: “Hi I’m y”

X: “What do you do?”

Y: “I work at *insert company name here*”

X: “Enjoy it?”

Y: “It pays the bills”

X: “Have a card/LinkedIn?”

Y: “Yes I do, was nice speaking to you!”

You can only say your title and workplace so many times without feeling like you’re in Groundhog Day. You’re often struggling to hear or be heard over other people’s conversations. This leads to superficial conversations that don’t really go anywhere. When you are passionate about what you do, this can be a little off-putting.

Although sometimes people are hesitant to ask others to go into detail, particularly in tech, the highly technical warrants deeper exploration. To be able to discuss what you’re working on can break the ice in a way that exclusively exchanging social niceties cannot. The “Top Trumps” aspect of networking is countered by actually having real discussions about what projects people are developing and getting a sense of how they approach problems.

Fundamentally, there is a need for events with not too much background noise, good food, great wine and above all the opportunity for conversation that can facilitate not just numerous relationships, but meaningful ones.

This is not to say the speed-dating style of networking doesn’t have its place, but to exclusively attend these events is like going through life just eating starters. They satisfy you in the short term, but their ultimate aim is to whet your appetite for something more. People are more than their first impression, and it is unfair to exclusively judge them upon this. To disagree with Elvis Presley, a little less action a little more conversation please.

My company, Binary District, covers every field in emerging tech be that blockchain, AI, AR, VR, cybersecurity, or biotech and it’s been eye-opening in unexpected ways how quick people are to venture opinions on all of these fields. In a society that favours those with a talent for self-promotion, many are quick to venture an opinion on tech with no understanding of what is actually going on. When everything is so new and people are struggling to keep up with the pace of change in technology, the loudest can be given more attention than the brightest. That’s just not the best way to progress, and I so look forward to people having the confidence, time and space to share their passions.

Our motto is “No hype, just facts” which is equally applicable to the speakers we select and the atmosphere we choose to create.

Primalbase will be opening on October 4th, make sure to RSVP here.

If you cannot find me in person, you can catch me live tweeting, so feel free to reach out.