Coming Soon – Developing Community Partnerships: The Book

Excerpt 

You enter a room of over one hundred people; some you know, others you do not know. You realize that the program does not start for another half hour or so, and you are early enough to network. You pan the gathering and notice someone who looks interesting on the other side of the room. You cross the room, introduce yourself, strike up a conversation, agree to connect outside the networking space, exchange business cards, and part ways. Now what?

This is the typical opening scenario in networking. Many people have no idea what to do after they have exchanged business cards. To begin with, what should the topic of conversation be beyond the networking space? How would you add value to the conversation? Whose responsibility is it to initiate setting up a time to connect after the event? And what should be done with all the business cards you have collected at the event? Are they all equally important? Should you really attempt to connect with every person you obtained a business card from?