When you're at the show

- There I was at an evening conference party. I attended the conference alone so I didn't have a sidekick and was roaming around solo. I spotted a cocktail table with one woman standing near it and decided that was a good non-intimidating option. So I approached and asked if I could join her. Of course, she said, absolutely. And we got to talking. It turns out that she was actually a customer of mine, Nancy, that I knew really well via email but we'd never actually met face to face. We laughed so hard and still talk about that night. That little incident is a great example of taking a shot at blind networking, so to speak. I was nervous alone, sort of ready to head back to my hotel room and not do the whole be alone at a party thing, but this totally broke the ice for me. I had a great night build an even deeper relationship with my client and made friends the rest of the evening. Conferences are full of last minute opportunities to meet with others and make lasting connections. Sometimes you have to put yourself forward a bit more and other times it's actually more natural than you might think. Let me walk you through it. The first place to find spontaneous standout opportunities is during free time, at a party, networking breakfast, lunches, happy hours, anytime where people are kind of floating around without a structured agenda. You're not in a session. You're not giving a presentation. You're not working that expo booth. This is a time for you to look around and see who else might have free time and be open to chatting. Another place to connect with people is in the expo hall. Whether you're the actual person work in the booth or whether you're just wandering around, sometimes conferences can feel a little lonely. You feel a little bit awkward especially if you don't have your colleague with you or the booth traffic is low. The expo hall is a great place to start chit chatting with people. Break the ice by asking about their products. You might learn something new. At worst you get a sales pitch that you don't necessarily want to hear, but you kill some time, you learn something new and you take away some information that you didn't have before. You might even make a new buddy or build a new relationship that can provide value in the future. Another great opportunity to make a connection is directly after a session. There's a couple of ways you can do this. One is by talking to the speaker. Now I will give you a big caveat, please by all means don't ambush the speaker immediately after they give their presentation. Give the person a minute to collect their thoughts, get a sip of water, gather themselves and say thank you to the tech people around them. Note the speaker, remember their face and flag them down in the hall later. If the speaker doesn't resonate with you, there are plenty of other people in the room that you can connect with. The person sitting next to you for example, ask them what they thought about the session. Get some feedback from the others around you, see if you're on the same page. Maybe they learned something from the session that you didn't. Having that kind of back and forth with another person can really deepen your understanding of what the session was all about. Just like my interaction with Nancy, these are great ways for you to connect with others and other opportunities for you to stand out. Everyone is there for the same reasons. So open up a bit and look around, stay optimistic. Meaningful connections or at least a great story are out there just waiting for you.