Networking Events
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So I've been asked if I;d like to attend a networking event, with talks, free food and free beer. Has anyone had experience of these, and if so, do you think they are worthwhile [other than the free food/beer].
I've gone to various "User Groups" over the years. Usually there's a guest speaker who's an "expert" in this or that. The takeaways from the are marginal in my experience. What it really does is give you the chance to meet other folks in your industry. Remember, it's not WHAT you know, it's WHO you know.
If it's not broken, fix it until it is
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So I've been asked if I;d like to attend a networking event, with talks, free food and free beer. Has anyone had experience of these, and if so, do you think they are worthwhile [other than the free food/beer].
One I went to (paid for by an agency) was in a bar, and the bar had a sign for $40 shots of tequila, I won't pay $40 for a bottle of tequila, so I had to try it. They didn't ask me back.
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For me, it depends on the talks and who I'm networking with. I've been attending one of our local user's group meetings. There's free food (no beer), some time for networking, and a talk. The talks have been centered around a technology that I've been slowly learning about because I find it interesting, but not interesting enough to actually sit down and research. For me, that's probably the perfect mix. If the talks were too technical, I wouldn't be able to follow them. If they were on a topic I did have interest in, I'd be bored. And if they were on a topic I had no interest in whatsoever, I'd fall asleep. I come out of the meetings feeling enriched a little on three fronts, so I keep going back. For a while around here, there were a lot of networking events, with talks on how to network better, and a random slice of people who wanted to network instead of being heavily slanted toward technical computer nerds. Events like that are not for me.
We can program with only 1's, but if all you've got are zeros, you've got nothing.
User group meetings are very different from "networking" meetings. In the user groups it is all about the tech, networking is all about the people. Weird stuff! I've only ever been to one and ended up talking to the CEO of a small start up, a very uncomfortable situation as she was one of those power women, very driven and focused, the conversation did not last long :laugh: .
Never underestimate the power of human stupidity RAH
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So I've been asked if I;d like to attend a networking event, with talks, free food and free beer. Has anyone had experience of these, and if so, do you think they are worthwhile [other than the free food/beer].
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So I've been asked if I;d like to attend a networking event, with talks, free food and free beer. Has anyone had experience of these, and if so, do you think they are worthwhile [other than the free food/beer].
Did they also mention there will be other people? That's quite enough reason for me not to go to these events :D
Read my (free) ebook Object-Oriented Programming in C# Succinctly. Visit my blog at Sander's bits - Writing the code you need. Or read my articles here on CodeProject.
Simplicity is prerequisite for reliability. — Edsger W. Dijkstra
Regards, Sander
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So I've been asked if I;d like to attend a networking event, with talks, free food and free beer. Has anyone had experience of these, and if so, do you think they are worthwhile [other than the free food/beer].
I went to one a couple of months ago. I expected to go, have some pizza & a beer (which happened), listen to a talk (which happened), then leave pretty quickly, which didn't happen. I ended up talking to a few developers from other companies nearby about dev stuff in general & stayed till the end. Having said that, I haven't bothered to go again.
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So I've been asked if I;d like to attend a networking event, with talks, free food and free beer. Has anyone had experience of these, and if so, do you think they are worthwhile [other than the free food/beer].
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So I've been asked if I;d like to attend a networking event, with talks, free food and free beer. Has anyone had experience of these, and if so, do you think they are worthwhile [other than the free food/beer].
I've never found them terribly useful. Networking isn't my strength so this is not an arena where I will naturally shine, but I've typically not found many people that I would like to be in contact with.
Outside of a dog, a book is a man's best friend; inside of a dog, it's too dark to read. -- Groucho Marx
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So I've been asked if I;d like to attend a networking event, with talks, free food and free beer. Has anyone had experience of these, and if so, do you think they are worthwhile [other than the free food/beer].
If you are a small business trying to start up your company then it certainly can work for you. In particular is you are looking for work fixing peoples computer screw-ups, network screw-ups, etc., then it is particularly worthwhile. If you have a small target market for your product/service then probably not. If you are introverted and/or close-minded or just plain don't like other people (the Sheldon Syndrome as I call it) as some of the others responding negatively to your post seem to be (no moral judgments, just stating the facts) THEN you should definitely NOT. Having said that, I joined a networking group in Charlotte, NC in 1996 and built my company. I was given a "lead" to a company by an insurance salesman that had called on them the day before, and not only got the work, but a business partner (he invested in my company after several years), and life-long friend. He later bought me out of that company, when I moved back to New Orleans. To this day, 20 years later, both the business lead, and the insurance salesman are friends and the insurance salesman is my Insurance agent. To sum up, it is like Schrodinger's Cat... you may like it and be successful, or you may hate it and find it a waste of time. But if you don't try it once you will never know.
ChickenLegWilley A giraffe is a horse designed by a committee....
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If you want some networking that involves beer then find your local hash house[^]. You wont regret it (much).
Elephant elephant elephant, sunshine sunshine sunshine
What a small world. I encountered some Hash House Harriers just a few days ago. They seemed well stocked with beer :laugh:
We're philosophical about power outages here. A.C. come, A.C. go.
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What a small world. I encountered some Hash House Harriers just a few days ago. They seemed well stocked with beer :laugh:
We're philosophical about power outages here. A.C. come, A.C. go.
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So I've been asked if I;d like to attend a networking event, with talks, free food and free beer. Has anyone had experience of these, and if so, do you think they are worthwhile [other than the free food/beer].
