Business Card Roulette
Going to large networking events, walking into the room, not sure who anyone is, getting trapped in a conversation with someone trying to sell you something you are not looking for and being unsure who to approach.
Let me tell you the problem with large events.
I call it business card roulette.
You walk into the room and throw around cards like everyone else hoping to land on the winning contact.
It is a game of luck, not strategy.
It isn’t an environment that fosters creating authentic dialogue around how you can help each other, ways you can collaborate or work together.
It is a matter of covering as much ground as possible vs building quality relationships.
At the end of the evening you walk away with too many business cards, no recollection of anyone’s names (thanks LinkedIn for making it easy to stalk and fill in the gaps) and no real inspiration to step forward and support each other.
I get it, having 200 guests at your event sounds impressive. It sounds great to sponsors, it sounds great to partners, it sounds great to everyone, really, on the surface.
The reality? For the guests, it is not conducive to creating real relationships and business opportunities.
I had a conversation with a fellow female founder recently and she said:
“I don’t have the time to go to mediocre events and find out when I am there if it is valuable or not.”
This stuck with me. As someone new to Austin I attended several free networking events, and found myself being sold to, or meeting people that just were not relevant, and two weeks in, I stopped going to these events.
This is crazy. I am new to town, I really need to build out my network, and here I am, with so many free events happening daily and I am not using them. Why?
Nothing is free. Time is valuable. I would argue that right now time is my most valuable resource. Free events cost time. Time in finding them, researching them, travelling to them and attending them. Time in follow up from people trying to sell me, time in mental energy being on show to a huge room full of people I just don’t know.
Last week I hosted the second Female Founder Roundtable in Austin. A small group of women, coming together over dinner, wine and valuable conversation. Building out community is truly a matter of quality over quantity.
This is me creating a network of people I want to meet through SipScene. It provided an opportunity to get personal feedback, offer guidance to other female founders and build relationships where I am comfortable asking for ongoing support, or offering personal suggestions for each attendee as a follow up.
So the saying goes, less is more. Managing hundreds of relationships can be exhausting, impersonal and a waste of time.
This is why we help people create curated events, for curated crowds, in an intimate setting where real relationships can be formed.
Are you looking for ways to network authentically and build real relationships? I would love to hear from you. Click here to find a time to talk → https://calendly.com/sipscene/
