I’m sure it is no surprise to you to hear that my Italian heritage is so important to me, and connecting with fellow Italians and Italian businesses gives me great joy.
As such, I always look forward to attending events, when I can, at UK CONFEDERATION by CONFASSOCIAZIONI and the Italian Chamber of Commerce and Industry in the UK and their forthcoming events schedule looks very appealing!
Whilst #social media provides many opportunities to develop networks, there is still very much a need for face-to-face networking events, and for me they are still so important for small businesses and entrepreneurs. I have attended many in my time, and have developed some of my best client relationships from these.
So, I thought I would pass on my five top tips to gain the most benefit from networking events:
1. Be confident and talk to people! Generally, everyone at a networking event is there for the same reasons, so take the bull by the horns and start the conversation. You never know where it will go!
2. Choose a networking event in which you are interested in the topic – that way you will have something about which to talk to other attendees, and on the flip side if you don’t end up making many connections at least the event will have proved interesting on a personal level.
3. Make sure your @Linked In profile is accurate. If you don’t regularly write articles and posts, then make sure you show you are interested in keeping up to date with advancements in your industry by liking and commenting on other peoples’ posts. Make yourself stand out from the virtual crowd.
4. Listen! After starting a conversation, take time to let the other person talk. As @Richard Branson said, “Listen more than you talk. Nobody learned anything by hearing themselves speak.”
5. Enjoy the event and don’t forget to follow up by sending Linked In invites and emails. I cannot stress the importance of this enough!
What forthcoming networking events do you have coming up? If you have any other tips, I’d love to hear them!
Have a great weekend,
Luciana