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- Your in-person networking strategy in 4 easy steps
Your in-person networking strategy in 4 easy steps
Plus 15 best practices to implement today
Kyle Thomas
June 08, 2024
JOB SEARCH STRATEGY
The sun was out, the garbage was stinking, and New York City was alive this week for NY Tech Week.
It takes a lot to pull me away from my three kids in New Jersey, but this week, I was hopping that train like an old-time hobo to soak in all the Big Apple energy and tech vibes.
Today, we’ll hit on
The easiest in-person networking process you’ve ever seen
In-person networking tips straight from my experience this week
What upcoming in-person events you can attend
—Kyle Thomas
In-person networking in 4 easy steps.
I used to hate in-person networking. Every event I’d attend, I’d find myself questioning why I even came, surrounded by people I didn’t find interesting, waiting for the event to end so I could run out the door.
Networking strategy should be simple.
You really just need to answer four questions:
What are you trying to accomplish?
Who are you trying to reach?
What resources do you have?
How will you measure success?
What are you trying to accomplish?
We all know that setting goals is important. Yet, in the job search, we’re quick to push them aside as obvious (“My goal is to land a job, duh!”). That’s a mistake. It’s critical to write down real goals for the sake of your job search and your future.
The “SMART” acronym works perfectly for your in-person networking goals.
Specific: Are you hoping to build relationships with people in a specific function? Learn more about a topic? Sell yourself to target employers?
Measurable: Make sure the goal is quantifiable. No numbers = not specific enough.
Achievable: You won’t meet every person or get a job on the spot. Be realistic.
Relevant: How does this networking relate to your job search and career goals? If it doesn’t, then why are you there?
Time-bound: For a networking event, this is easy because it’s a set date and time.
I’ve interviewed hundreds of startup job seekers in the last two years. Those with a job search lasting longer than three months had one common trait—a lack of clarity. Goals are a clarity driver. Set goals for each event you attend to avoid looking back at your week and asking, “Why the hell was I even there?”
Who are you trying to reach?
There are four different types of people at in-person networking events. The panelists, the host, the attendees, and the sponsors. Know who you’re trying to speak to and why.
It’s ok if your answer to this question is all of the above, but the reason you want to reach them will not be the same. It’s important to remember that you have a limited amount of time and to prioritize building relationships with the most valuable people for your specific goals. Building a relationship with a panelist could lead to mentorship. Building a relationship with the host could lead to volunteering opportunities at future events. Building a relationship with attendees could lead to introductions to target companies.
I attended an event this week sponsored by Beehiiv and Teachable. The Beehiiv COO was a panelist and the Teachable CEO was sitting two rows behind me in the audience. Don’t sleep on the sponsors - they’ll send people to the event and those people bring opportunities with them.
What resources do you have?
Batman doesn’t leave the Bat Cave with an empty utility belt. Neither should you.
The resources you can bring to an in-person event are your stories and skills.
What stories do you have: Have you rehearsed the answer to “tell me about yourself”? Is it under two minutes long? Does it make you sound like a badass and leave people saying - “Damn, what a story”? Can you tell someone in a clearly defined set of characteristics what job/company you’re looking for next and why? Can you describe what you’re the best in the world at?
You only get one first impression, and you know that these questions are going to come up, so don’t miss the layup. If you know the type of person who will be attending the event, tailor your story to highlight the areas you know will resonate with them and leave a lasting impression.
What skills do you have: Are you a killer GTM strategist? An expert at new market launches? An operational process and automation wizard?
Go into the event knowing how you can help other people. During the natural flow of a conversation, if the opportunity presents itself, you can ask about their biggest challenges. If they align with your set of skills, you just became a valuable resource for them and created a follow-up opportunity for youself.
How will you measure success?
There’s one metric I use to measure the success of an in-person networking event – number of high-quality connections.
You’re going for quality, not quantity. Although a large quantity of quality connections is the dream. Depending on the event, you can consider it a success if you come out with four to five high-quality connections.
Once you have made the connections, your job is not done. You need to track them to understand how many of those connections turn into second conversations and how many of those second conversations turn into interviews or additional connections.
If you attend the event and don’t record your results anywhere, you’ll forget who you met, and the time you spent at the event will be wasted.
Rinse and repeat.
It will feel awkward at first, but the more reps you get, the more confident and natural it’ll feel. Landing your next startup job isn’t about any single action you take that magically gives you a dream offer at a future $10B+ company. It’s about taking action and adjusting your approach until all your preparation meets the perfect opportunity.
Best Practices.
Here are the top tactics I use to maximize the effectiveness of my networking at in-person events.
Target smaller events — The big names and big venues bring big crowds. More people means less access to the panelists and hosts. I like to target more intimate, smaller, highly targeted events with fewer attendees vs the mass appeal events with hundreds of attendees.
Connect with the panelists on LinkedIn — On the day of the event, send a connection request to each of the panelists and the MC(s). It can look something like this… “Hey [PANELIST/HOST FIRST NAME], I’m excited for the panel in [AMOUNT OF TIME UNTIL THE EVENT ex: an hour]. I’m [A 5-WORD DESCRIPTION OF WHO YOU ARE] and would love to dig deeper into [A SPECIFIC QUESTION YOU’D LOVE TO ASK THEM]. I’ll try to introduce myself in person at the event.”
Get there early — Get there 30 minutes before the event starts. You’ll be one of the first people through the doors, have the first choice of seating, and have direct access to the hosts, sponsors, volunteers, or employees running the event (and first dibs on food).
Write your name and function on your nametag — Putting your first name and your company function on your nametag gives people some context on who you are and what you’re doing at the event. This makes you more approachable and creates an easy conversation starter when meeting others.
Get a front-row seat — One of the benefits of arriving early is getting to choose your seat. Put your bag/jacket on a seat in the front row to save it. This is important because it’ll make recording the session, taking pictures, and asking questions easier.
Take pictures — Take pictures of the panel and each individual member. You can use these for social posts that mention each of the members and companies. You can also send these in DM’s to the panelists/host for them to use in their social posts, which allows you to start the relationship by delivering value. You can also get pictures with the people you meet to use in outreach as a reminder of who you are.
Record the session — Don’t be the person holding up their phone to record a video of the whole panel. That’s weird. Instead, open up the voice recording app on your phone. This is useful when writing posts on LinkedIn and X and for recalling specific language or examples each person used.
Ask a question — Only a small number of people will be able to ask a question. If you’re one of those people, you’ll be more memorable. Have a question for the panelists ahead of time or develop one as the panelists speak. Make sure the question is relevant to the panelists. Bonus points for a question highlighting a panelist’s background to show you’ve done your research before the event.
Introduce yourself to the panel/host — Do your research before the event to learn about each panelist's background. Where did they go to college? Where have they worked? Where do they work now? What are they best known for? Do they publish content? Have they appeared on podcasts? YouTube videos? If you can drop some of these juicy nuggets on them when introducing yourself, it’ll demonstrate that you’ve done your homework, make you stand out, and create a good rapport which is step one in building a relationship.
Be bold but gracious — This week, I heard a story about how a job seeker walked up to a panelist, introduced themselves, let them know they had applied for a job at their startup and how much they loved the company, handed the panelist a clearly written cover letter in an envelope, recognized how busy they were and thanked them for everything, then dismissed themselves. The panelist said, “Well, of course I’m going to read that cover letter.” He later hired the person. Big emphasis on being gracious. Entitlement kills relationships.
Ask more, speak less — To be interesting, be interested. This is why choosing the right event to go to matters. If you’re interested in the subject of the event, these other people will be too. That means you already have something in common. Be the one asking all the questions. You want to understand as much about them as possible. What are they doing at the event? What do they do for work? What are their biggest pain points? How can you use your skills and network to help them?
Be socially aware — Read the room. Don’t drink too much, it’s not a good look. If you catch yourself rambling, stop and get to the point. If you can tell someone needs to step away, let them go.
Always have a drink in your hand — I ditched booze 8 months ago so I don’t hold alcohol but I always make sure I have a seltzer water in hand. Why? It’s an easy way to get out of any conversation to move on and meet other people. Either tell them you need to go to the bathroom or that you need to get another drink. It’s not rude and gives you a prop to point to.
Use the LinkedIn QR code for connections — Business cards are a thing of the past so before you and your new connection say goodbye, pull out your phone, open the LinkedIn app, tap on the search bar, then tap on the QR code. It automatically pulls up their profile so you can connect and follow up later.
Follow up creatively — Post a recap of the event on LinkedIn and tag the panelists and the attendees you met. If the panelists wrote posts leading up to or after the event, leave a comment with your key takeaways. Send an email with the photos you took at the event for them to use in their social posts (if they’re of high enough quality). Everyone sends a message saying, “Great to meet you, thank you for your time.” Think of a way to stand out.
Upcoming Events.
There are an endless number of in-person tech events you can attend this year. I recommend doing a quick Perplexity.ai or Google search for 2024 tech events in your city as well as joining free industry and functional communities and asking members about in-person events. Here are a few other places you can find upcoming events.
Bazzabo put together a comprehensive list of over 100 tech events happening this year.
New York Tech Week is winding down, Next up, San Francisco, then Los Angeles.
An additional comprehensive list of events through 2024.
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