[nabs-l] Networking

[Antonio Guimaraes]

Shake as many hands as you can, and never leave somebody without asking, and getting the business card. Never spent more than a few minutes with the person, because that will mean you are spending too much time with them, and won't talked with many people.

Alright, alright. If you thought I was kidding about that, you are dead on.

There is a lot of focus today on networking. A lot of people have misconceptions about how it works effectively. You need to be well-dressed, have a firm and professional handshake, a contact card, an elevator speech, and so on.

Some people use a much despised word in conjunction with networking. Shmoozing. To me, that connotes  sucking up to get what you want.

To be sure, building your network will help you get what you want. But that is not where you start. As a matter fact, you should be concerned with how you can contribute to the person in your network first. This is how you will be remembered, why they will like you, and why they will want to do something for you.

There are questions we need to address as blind people attending networking events. I won't address that here. Here are some general rules that work in general.

One of the keys to networking is to keep in touch. Get someone contact information, save it in one central location, and add a system that reminds you to keep in touch with your contact every so often.

Some may find this very contrived, but you're better off doing this, then nothing at all. Worse yet, you would be wasting your time, money, and effort attending and paying for conferences, pocketing the business card, sending one email to tell the person you exist, and never talking with them again.

I hope this helps.

Antonio







On Mar 2, 2014, at 9:13 PM, Bobbi Pompey <pompey2010 at yahoo.com> wrote:

> Hello,
> 
> I am attending a convention for a professional organization in my field at the end of this week. I've been to events like this in the past, and I have experience and networking. But I would like to know if you have any suggestions as to how you network and a group of hundreds or even thousands of people as a person who is visually impaired.
> 
> Thank you, 
> 
> Bobbi A. L. Pompey
> (336) 988-6375
> pompey2010 at yahoo.com 
> http://pompey2050.wix.com/bobbi-pompey
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