How to Network at a Conference

Thom Singer, the guy at the conference who seems to know everyone, did a fun experiment at a recent conference and played the shy, introverted person, just to see what would happen.

It was a complete failure (or success, depending on how you look at it!).  No one talked to him.  Some nice smiles and nods, but no networking.

You don’t have to be extroverted to get value out of networking, but you should do something!  Here are his 10 tips for networking at a conference (read entire post here):

1. Have a plan.
2. Bring plenty of business cards.
3. Focus on meeting the other attendees, not just the “Stars”.
4. Talk to the people sitting next to you.
5. Ask questions of people you meet.
6. Put your technology away.
7. Do not automatically send a LinkedIn or Facebook request.
8. Read their stuff.
9. Introduce others.
10. Follow up. (Jason’s note: use JibberJobber to organize your job search and help with the follow-up!)
11. Do more than others expect from you.

(I like his last point, which was… more than 10 :)).

You can be introverted, of course, but have a networking plan!  Again, read Thom’s post to learn more about each point.