Networking 20.11

I have attended (as participant and speaker) two conferences lately:

- Digital Marketing Forum in Bucharest (organized by Evensys)

- International Congress of Youth Entrepreneurship in Brussels (organized by JADE)

and I have noticed that there are some interesting ways in which networking has changed nowadays, as described below.

1. Speakers do not carry business cards with them anymore. You can remember their name or find it on the website of the event and then connect to them on LinkedIn (and from there on twitter, facebook etc.) However, LinkedIn is not that friendly if you want to connect with somebody you met during an event if you don't have his/her email address from the business card (and no other criteria apply, such as done business together or colleagues).

2. Most of the people do not have just one professional activity at a time, they usually run more projects/ companies/ jobs. Multitasking! So what happens then with the business cards? Some give you more business cards in the same time (one for each activity), some give you the relevant business card for the event you meet at, some give you a business card that sends you to their individual website where you can see all their ongoing activities. I also find myself in the same situation, I have 3 current positions at the moment and I am still thinking what to do about it regarding promotion (business card or something else). I have an idea so far and I will show you soon.

3. We do miss more tech tools. Like one that enables you to see who is in the room. Yes, we do have applications like Foursquare where you can check in and see who else is around, but there you cannot see professional profiles that are needed in these circumstances.

4. Twitter walls are so helpful. Is an easy way to connect with people in the room through twitter, share impressions and give feedback in real time. Every conference should have this.

5. There are some useful mobile apps that facilitate networking and managing contacts. I use and recommend CamCard for Android - an app that scans business cards with the phone's camera and then saves automatically all the info in your contact book, each at the appropriate place. If you know more useful tools like this, please share.

How do you connect?

* On the same topic: Business Insider article