One of our LAUNCH seminars this week was a great presentation by Will Kintish about networking. Again, another very funny, but very instructional IE presentation... He taught us about the six groups you find in any business/social event and which ones we'd have the most success with in approaching. He taught us, seemingly obvious, but highly effective short phrases to "dump" the rambling, boring person or the ignorant, obnoxious person. He challenged us to never again be the wallflowers at a gathering, but rather to go and talk to them all. And of course, we were all instructed to Linkedin it up.
I was lucky to have that night, and again the next night, two networking events to try out my new skills... The first was a classy dinner with the new U.S. Ambassador to Spain and Andorra Alan D. Solomont thrown jointly by the Georgetown Club of Madrid and the Yale Club. I pointed out to my friend the different groups and we surveyed the situation... At the end of the night, we both got a few business cards, rubbed elbows with the Ambassador, but most importantly, had a fun time talking politics.
The next night was the monthly meeting of Democrats Abroad of Madrid. I had an "ah-hah!" moment as Mr. Kintish would say, when one woman I was talking to mentioned that she was starting to do some independent consulting on corporate social responsibility issues with companies in Spain. Ah-hah! I want to do that! I offered my limited time and resources, and my business card, we'll see what comes of that...
All in all, as I've said before, I think networking is really important. Sometimes it's fun, and sometimes it seems more like a chore. I'm glad IE helps us with these "soft skills." It's bed time! Two more days of LAUNCH to go!
