Wednesday, September 26, 2007

Networking 101: Name Tags and More

This evening I was at the Green Drinks here in Fort Collins.  Now the Green Drinks group in Fort Collins seems to be heavily dominated by Green Builders.  I think Green Builders are great and they are promoting a new way sustainable living.  But as they talk of big development projects or wealthy people who can afford their products, I think “Aren’t we missing the point a bit here?”  Should we not be building less, reusing more, building more compact, living smaller?  I just need to realize those are my values and not necessarily others. 

 

Where was I?  Oh yea, I was in a networking delema!  How can I find the Environmental Activists here amoungst all these Green Builders.  First off, I arrived just late enough that there were no more name badges.  This put me at a serious networking disadvantage.  Then I went on a hunt to find other activists.  I scanned each persons name tag to see what they were up to.  Some people had there own corporate plastic name tags that were really easy to read with their company logos.  This made me realize how I should have brought my TheClimateProject.org reusable name tag along.  Others had written in thin pen on their adhesive name tags and I struggled to read them.  And some wrote large and clear and just put very catchy things like “Be Green” under their names.  It was this last group of people that usually caught my attention.  The learning: catchy name tag = attention.

 

This evening when I got home, I had the latest newsletter from www.TheNetworkingGurus.com (Cindy Rold and Donna Feldman).  I wished I had read it before I left.  It was a great refresher in becoming a better at networking.  This month’s newsletter featured an article from the Mark Hiatt, President of Just Networking and Colorado Business Leads.  In it he talks about his FOREST™ program that stands for Family, Origin (place-of), Recreation, Entertainment, Special interests, Talents (what are you good at doing) as the great fall back point when conversation gets dry.  It made me realize how much more networking practice I could use.

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