Conferences: great places for networking

It is where you meet other geeks like you, book publishers, great contacts at some of the biggest companies, contributors to your favorite open source projects, potential start-up partners and the list goes on.

As a business owner, you will find customers and service providers. You will also find employees or consultants if you’re hiring. You will learn about interesting products that other companies are building that can be useful to you. You will also find companies or people who might purchase your own products or services. As a head hunter or recruitment agency, you will find employees or consultants to refer to your clients. You will also find more companies in search of employees to add to your directory.

There are hours when no particular presentation interests you. Instead of going to a random one, skip it and go find people to talk to. They can hang out near the coffee and in hallways. they can sit with their laptops wherever there’s wifi. Use the breaks between sessions to talk to people instead of reading your e-mails. Every minute counts! During lunch, don’t go sitting by yourself or at a random table where nobody is in a mood to talk. You’ll lose a whole hour of potential networking. Pick a table with people who asked interesting questions during the presentations. There will probably be some scheduled networking events at the conference. Read the program carefully to find out when and where. After the event, don’t go home right away. Chances are that people will go out for a beer. Follow them (you don’t have to get drunk). This is where you’ll have a chance to find the people who are less visible in public, but are still very sociable.