Networking like a boss

As I arrived at the OurCrowd conference last year, I met a woman heading out. She looked exhausted. She came over to me anyway and began to download her shpiel, and download, and down and load. At a certain point she said, I can't believe I'm saying all this again.

I couldn't either.

After five minutes in the gale force wind of her delivery, I wished her luck, hitched up my bag and tried to escape. Realising she was losing her audience, she pulled out her big guns. She asked that old networking default, What do you do?

Firstly, the lump and dump approach to networking is passe. If you think that everyone you are talking to is the same, that's lumping. And if you deliver the same well-worn blurb to everyone, you are like a dump-truck emptying out a load. So, yes, that's dumping.

Secondly, What do you do? is the question that encourages the lump and dump approach.

Ask any open question and be interested in who you're talking to or share any snippet of info about yourself and the conference and you will be hands down more engaging than any of the lump and dump crowd. Minimally, it will reduce the number of people trying to escape from you and increase the warmth of any follow up you do.