 One of the biggest parts of our jobs is meeting partners and meeting planners is networking with other meeting partners and meeting planners. But networking doesn't come easy to all of us. So today I'd like to outline some principles of networking as outlined by Darcy Rezek in his book Work the Pond that will hopefully help you the next time you head into a networking reception. Hey everyone it's Leanne from LeanneColderwood.com and I've noticed that networking is definitely one of the most important parts of our jobs as meeting partners and planners. Also one of the most time-consuming parts of our jobs and in a lot of cases for us it's one of the most stressful parts of our jobs. I myself I am not an extrovert. I am an introvert or now what they're calling people who are ambiverts. Ambiverts are apparently people who can adapt to situations but still need some alone time to recharge their batteries. And here's the thing I don't think I'm alone. I think our industry is full of ambiverts or introverts and so the prospect of a networking reception is terrifying. It can be very stressful especially if you're walking into one all by yourself and really what is the end game of a networking reception besides connecting with the hosts and having a wonderful glass of wine. So what I did a few years ago is I read the book Work the Pond by Darcy Rezak and it's great. So he broke down networking into seven principles. Seven principles are formed into the word network so N-E-T-W-O-R-K. So I'm going to outline the principles that he's outlined in his book but also how they apply to us as meeting partners and planners in the meetings industry. So here we go. The first letter of network is N and it stands for never leave home without them. That is your business cards. It is astounding how many networking receptions I attend and people are still without business cards or they've conveniently just ran out of cards. It's really important that you take business cards to events. Now the end goal isn't to collect and distribute as many business cards as possible. The end goal is definitely to make connections but in order to further the connection you need to be able to follow up with someone or they need to be able to follow up with you. So make sure you don't leave home without your business cards. The E in network is actually four words. It is establish, extend, engage and exchange. So establish is establishing eye contact with someone when you're in the networking reception or room. Once you establish eye contact with someone then it's time to extend an invitation with them to connect and extending can then be seen as extending your hand and introducing yourself. Try to be the first one to introduce yourself in an exchange with someone at a networking reception. It actually does make you more memorable than someone who is more on the receiving end versus the extending end. So next time you're there try and extend more than receiving introductions in your little circle of friends. So the three third word is engage and that is asking meaningful questions whether it's about their career, whether it's about the conference that you're attending but something that you're looking for some common ground with those engaging questions. So try to find something that you have in common and start to develop that rapport with the person and the fourth E of course is exchange and that's those business cards that I mentioned in tip number one. The T in network stands for travel in pairs and I'm not going to lie I love this one but I need to break down why I love it so much. So this is not about having a comfort zone partner by your side for the entire evening. No no this is about tag teaming to make sure that you remember names, facts, pieces of information about a person that you've just met. So when you're traveling in a pair it may be someone that you work with or someone that you're potentially not in competition with and that you can share that information and help each other out in remembering who it is that you've met and what potential business they may have for your organization. The key with this principle for meeting planners is the word pairs travel in pairs and oftentimes when we're in networking receptions we're traveling in packs and sometimes it's really hard for a single person to break into your tribe or your pack when there's five or six of you from the same destination or the same hotel engaged in conversation. So try to break up your tribe a little bit find a partner and start to look at the networking opportunity in that way that you're going to make meaningful connections you're going to look welcoming and with your partner by your side you can start to remember information a little bit better. So that's T travel in pairs. The W in network stands for working the pond which is the name of Darcy Rezak's book here and working the pond essentially means finding common ground with that individual and then finding a way to address their needs and provide value in that interaction or in the follow-up and a lot of times this is not related to the business or the service that you're selling but this is specifically addressing the need of that person you have just met it's that value-based engagement it's that providing something without expecting anything in return so that's what work the pond means it's it's not about a self-serving interaction but very selfless interaction. So when you're working the pond in the networking reception find ways to give give give rather than finding ways to get get get the O in network stands for opportunity is everywhere and meeting partners we break this principle all the time and I'm going to make an effort to never break this principle again what this means is we get disappointed when we introduce ourselves to someone in the room and they don't represent that golden egg piece of business that we thought might be possible and we do it all the time we go into a networking reception thinking we're going to meet the next meeting planner with a 6000 room night program for our destination or hotel and then we become a little disappointed when we realize not only is it not a 6000 room night program they're not even a meeting planner and their business is completely different from what we expected and we need to stop being disappointed when we don't meet the perfect client in a networking reception because that person who was a little less than perfect might have some incredible opportunities behind them or beside them or with other colleagues at their company or friends family neighbors so we need to explore a relationship with that person regardless of what their today business looks like because we never know when that person is is going to be the opportunity for a great piece of tomorrow business so again now you've met someone that the opportunity isn't today we need to provide value right now we're going back to working the pond and providing value to them and cultivating that relationship we need to get in a better habit of doing that versus meeting someone determining there of no value to us and moving on to the next person so collectively we're all going to start doing a better job of that I just know it are in network stands for repeat repeat repeat so this initial interaction that you have with the person extending exchanging business cards working the pond providing them value and cataloging mentally how we can stay in touch with this person after the fact then we're going to do it again and again and again and again and again and that's why traveling in pairs is so important because we meet all these people and we may not have time to jot down all of these great ideas we have about a person so traveling in pairs allows us to do a bit more memory retention in that in that regard so lather rinse repeat we're going to keep meeting people throughout the night and keep following the same formula and and and provide value to as many people as you can the K in network again one of my favorites is keep it going hashtag follow up so networking reception is only as valuable as the follow up you do afterwards so all those business cards that you collected now you have to do something with them they are not going to become a stack of cardboard on your desk we need to follow up with the person and not just follow up once but create a contact campaign for each individual and and keep the follow up going so my blog has a ton of tips on how to do email follow-ups and contact campaign follow-ups but for the purpose of the networking reception just make sure you do some kind of follow-up so that's network from work the pond by Darcy Rezak you can find a link to this book not only below this video on YouTube but also over at my blog at liankholderwood.com and while you're there sign up for my newsletter so my newsletter you not only do you get tips on how to attract meaning planner business but each week I send you a little bit more in-depth information about the blog posts that I've written and my newsletter really doesn't suck it has the calendar the industry calendar where you can find more networking receptions to attend as well as other tips and tricks that you can only find on the newsletter and not on the blog itself so pop on over to my website and sign up for the newsletter if you haven't already done so so there's a ton of networking receptions coming up in the fall months I hope to see you at some of them and if I do will you extend exchange and engage me like the tips in this book come and say hello and and extend your hand I would love love to meet you and find out what you think of the blog and the videos until next time have a great week bye for now you