Networking: how much is too much?

The setting was a Century City conference room, where a fairly well-known alum was speaking to my school's networking group on how Silicon Valley would likely impact the medical industry over the next decade.

As is the custom when we're a smallish group, we each got up in turn and gave our names, graduating year and reason for attending.

Usually I cleverly tie in why I'm there with what I do, and usually, I leave with far fewer business cards than I brought. At a seminar on selling, for example, I said, "I'm launching a business to help people brand themselves and I need help promoting it"; at a program on 'goal-free living' this spring, I think I just blurted out that as a recovering goal-aholic, I didn't want to hem in my presentation design business by thinking too narrowly. But each time, I did it with enthusiasm, piqued lots of people's interest and even got a couple of clients out of it.

So I don't know what got into me last Wednesday: maybe it was the long drive up from a San Diego conference that morning, or the cold I still hadn't gotten over from the Palm Springs conference, or the fact that this was event #3 in just under two weeks. But when my time came around, I stood up and said that since I'd been diagnosed with a chronic illness, I was very curious to see what was in store for this medical-industrial complex I'd come to have no affection for.

I think you could have heard a pin drop even on the carpeting. As I said to Ilise on the phone debriefing the next morning, "What was I thinking?"

The truth is, I wasn't thinking. I just said the first thing that came into my head, partly because it was true, partly because I was fried, and partly because I had gotten overly confident about winging it.

My lesson? More preparation is almost always better than less. And sometimes, fewer networking events in a row is better than more!

How do you prepare for events? Or do you? And how many events is too many for you?

Comments

[Henriet Schapelhouman]

This was a very timely post as I am getting ready to attend a two week workshop with much preparation due. My tendency is to wing it and rely on that "skill." Thanks for challenging me today to make sure I'm adequately prepared and don't rely on the first thing that pops into my head. Henriet

[Colleen Wainwright]

You're welcome. It's funny--I know I enjoy my successes more, but I learn more from my so-called failures.

On the other hand, maybe it's time to redefine "success" and "failure." After all, if I'm really learning and growing from it, how can it be a failure, right?

Good luck at your event. If you can, please drop by afterwards or shoot us an email letting us know how your prep paid off.