Today, like yesterday, I stayed home and worked all day. That usually means that Thursday will be a road day. I know of four meetings I have to get to and countless other tasks that will keep me from the office.
Also, like yesterday I went out in the evening to a few local events. First up was the Tompkins County Chamber of Commerce monthly Business After Hours event at the Ithaca Beer Company with food from Viva!
I showed up just after it kicked off (the hours were 5-7pm) and instantly ran into a doctor friend from the Ithaca Health Alliance (who was there with her 8 month old daughter - - a total networking magnet!). We were about to wander into the back room with my buddy Steve and his wife appeared. After a few introductions and baby discussions we went deeper into the brewery. Alex from I.P.A. (Ithaca Practitioners of Ale Making) was working the bar and served up cups of Ithaca Brewery's finest.
Inside I ran into a few other people I knew. I think I talked to about 10 people of which I already knew 7 of them. The cocktail party networking event is to me probably the most difficult situation to meet new people. People come in groups of 2 to 4 people and then rove around together. People who already know each other talk to each other a little bit. There isn't anything that formally stimulates new relationships. Introverts take food and drinks and plaster themselves up against the wall eating and watching. People alone do a circuit around the event looking for people they know. Two people in conversation block everyone else out. Extroverts seek out other extroverts. People depart knowing basically who they knew with small margins of new relationship and new business growth left to a few true cocktail party experts.
Other formats that can work (in my case): One on one activities where people have to work on something together (service projects like pancake breakfasts), dinners where you are forced to sit and talk to the people at your table (weddings, conferences), and classroom style events with breaks in between (training seminars, classes) to name a few. The idea behind all of these is you can learn someone's name, business and what they do at the business quickly and upfront. They also know you. Then you can seek out people that you may be interested in and people can seek you out.
Today I met someone from a financial advising company. They asked me about my business - website design and development. I asked them what they did at their company. They are a financial planner. Then they said, without giving me a card, someday when you have some money you can invest with me. They never asked if I had a financial planner. They didn't consider that I had any money to invest. They didn't take the opportunity to ask me if I'm saving for retirement. They didn't use the networking event to get to know me. It was dissapointing.
Later I was talking to someone else who was looking for business. At a previous event they talked up another individual and then asked them right off for some business. The person blew them off. Like dating, networking follows one simple rule. The goal of the first date - is to get a second date. Do your thing to talk to, impress, interest and get the contact information so you can get to a second meeting. The goal of the second meeting is to get a third date. Eventually, once you've decided you think there's something there you can specifically network over the relationship is already strong. Don't rush it. You don't want to be approached with the hard sell when you first meet a stranger. Likewise you will need to develop trust before you can ask for help, a sale or another date.
I left the brewery a little before 7 to make it to an event where I figured I would know a lot more than 10% of the people. NWAEG kicked off the fall semester with two movies screen at Cornell's Dilmun Hill Student Farm barn. They were two short films, here is some info from the CU NWAEG site:
Two short films will be shown:
The Accountant, the 2001 Academy Award Winning Best Action Live Short film, tells the story of a mysterious accountant whose remarkable mathematical skills just might save the O’Dell family farm. Shot entirely on location in Georgia, the film stars writer/director Ray McKinnon ("O Brother Where Art Thou?" / "Goodbye, Lover") and Walton Goggins ("The Shield").
The Gleaners and I. Agnès Varda, Grande Dame of the French New Wave, has made 2001's most acclaimed non-fiction film-a self-described "wandering-road documentary." Beginning with the famous Jean-François Millet painting of women gathering wheat left over from a harvest, she focuses her ever-seeking eye on gleaners: those who scour already-reaped fields for the odd potato or turnip. Her investigation leads us from forgotten corners of the French countryside to off-hours at the green markets of Paris, following those who insist on finding a use for that which society has cast off, whether out of necessity or activism.
A whole bunch of NWAEG alums from the 2005-06 school year attended and it was nice to be surrounded by some familiar academic friends after the suit and tie networking event. Tomorrow is Thursday (today now!) and the day starts with BNI networking and ends with a Dryden Town Board meeting. Everything in between is part of the adventure.
Sorry this post got so long, I forgot how much I liked to write after taking so many days off.
Check out http://www.davidmakar.com - there will be a full formal introduction Friday!
One of the reasons I like working for myself is that I get to try out a lot of new technology on my own. I get to see how it works and see how to make it work for one of my customers. When I see a new technology I know eventually I'll get a request to implement it for someone. I've been paying close attention to the usage of GoogleMaps for a long while and have wanted to try to do something creative with them. 
