Talking to a friend a few weeks ago about an event he attended that when he picked up his badge, he had to glue on a set of stars that indicated his networking comfort level.
The goal I can only imagine was to stir up conversation among attendees that don’t know each other and learn from each other.
The result was showcasing to one group – these are people that want to talk – and to the other – these are people that don’t want to talk.
So ignore the ones that don’t want to talk.
However, in talking to my friend, this is the person I would want to spend 30 – 45 minutes talking about solutions to because they are brilliant and have a straight-forward, no-nonsense approach to everything they do that it makes pure simple sense versus someone that might want to have the quick 5 – 10 convo with and then move onto someone else.
Networking with people isn’t Speed Dating, it’s not a game of who can get the most connections the fastest, it’s about who can create the most meaningful connections that you can learn from above and beyond the event you are currently attending.
If I ever attend a conference doing this, I’ll be sure to reach out to the people to no stars on their badges because maybe their approach is similar to mine.
