How to meet the right people during an event?
Written by Ilektra Chatzopoulou
Let me get that straight dear reader, I am not a public relations expert nor I am planning to share with you any precious secrets. On the contrary I will tell you what happened the 8th of February during an event organised by Nissan.
Imagine 20 start ups all in one place trying to stand out, sell their idea and impress future investors. How I happened to be there? Well Effect was one of them and luckily for me we managed to won the impressions and talk to the right people.
But how did we manage that?
Well first of all when you are about to attend an event you know there will be people you are interested at you have to point your targets. As we know, if you do not read my first article, Effect is the magic link between recent graduates and companies so we need to be familiar with the human recourses department. But we also promote the companies which hire from us through our workshops so we also need to speak with the marketing department. And of course as every new company we call for publicity so media were in our list two.
Since we pointed our targets what is it gonna be next? The more the merrier or quality comes first?
Dear reader you can offer your business card to as many people as you can, but how many people will actually contact you or reply to your mail when they have nothing more to remember than just a card? You have to build an image before you request a meeting but be carefull the time you dedicate to every contact is important. You want to make a point, when you are done with that you are just being annoying. You can stay more of course but you need two things, an interesting conversation and someone that you actually want to impress and you need them both otherwise it won’ t work.
Let’s say that you decided to invest your time to five people. You will just pass by and say hi? Don’ t laugh I actually did that, thankfully he had a good sense of humor. So before every event study the person you claim in your network. Don’ t become a stalker of course but you can check his personal page, his recent achievements, maybe an article written about him.
Done! You are ready for your next event! And always remember that I am not the expert here, I am just suggesting what I would do as the PR&Partnerships Manager of Effect.
See you next Tuesday,
Ilektra xxx
“Ilektra Chatzopoulou is a streeteller ( you can check out her blog here ) our PR&Partnerships Manager and in case you wonder she did attended Success Academy.”
“Το Success Academy της Effect είναι ένα πρωτοποριακό πρόγραμμα επαγγελματικής ανάπτυξης για τελειόφοιτους και πρόσφατους αποφοίτους Πανεπιστημίων και ΤΕΙ. Μέσα στις 8 εβδομάδες του προγράμματος, οι συμμετέχοντες έχουν την ευκαιρία να δοκιμάσουν τις δυνάμεις τους σε πραγματικά εταιρικά projects, να αναπτύξουν δεξιότητες που ζητούνται στην αγορά εργασίας και να διασυνδεθούν με εργοδότες. Αν θέλεις να μάθεις περισσότερα για το Success Academy και τις υπόλοιπες ευκαιρίες που προσφέρει η Effect σε νέους, join the “Awesomeness List” :)”
