Flying on the way to Boston for a two and a half week networking sprint has me thinking about networking strategies.

I don’t live in Boston. I live a thousand miles south in a small artsy town called Asheville. But I focus my networking on Boston because, on the East Coast, it dominates the software industry. Silicon Valley takes longer to get to, requires a lot more driving once there and involves jet lag. Plus, I just love Boston as a city.

Networking in a city far from where you live has it’s own set of challenges. So I’m constantly experimenting, trying out different techniques to see what works. Meanwhile, my networking goals and styles change as my needs change and I learn more about what’s important to me.

Today I want to explore my goals, the types of networking I do and experiments I’m trying or considering. Continue reading >

In October, Boston becomes a networking and learning mecca for entrepreneurs and innovators.

As I prepare for a two and a half week whirlwind trip to Boston next month, I thought it would be useful for others to know why they should travel to Boston, if they don’t already live there, and what events to attend. Continue reading >

You’re attending an industry networking party. At the end of the night you run into the CEO of a company you’ve been trying to get in front of for months. He’s about to leave, but you get two minutes to introduce yourself and hand him your card.

Two weeks later you still haven’t heard from him. Did he lose your card? Was he just being nice? Maybe he’s too busy. Could it have been your card?

Continue reading >

I’ve been in hypernetworking mode, having met over 40 people in the past two weeks, with two more networking events this week still to go. I now have over 250 contacts in LinkedIn. Looking through my connections, some I can’t even remember meeting. Others I had a good initial connection with, but they got lost in a pile of business cards and I unintentionally let the relationship fade away.

Figuring out how to manage these connections has been a problem. Then last week I discovered the notes and tags options in the right-hand column of each of my contacts. Now I’m taking notes about each person I meet so I remember them in the future, and tagging them using a new system to help me remember and manage my relationship with them. Continue reading >