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7 social networking events you should attend before 2011

Submitted by Simon Lewis on July 2, 2010 – 10:11 amNo Comment

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Stop hiding behind your avatar and start making real contacts instead

It’s who you know, not what you know – as my old dad once said

So we’re halfway through the year and already I have been to 21 separate networking events across 7 different UK cities, meeting all sorts of people from within the marketing and recruitment industries. Exhausting it has certainly been. But I’ve loved it.

Retrospective me

Not being a teckie freak (that’s envious me, right there!) I’m often found lagging in this digitally-evolving world. If it were down to me, I’d still own one of those banana-shaped mobile phones, the one with the retractable aerial. I’d also spend Saturday afternoon in HMV, looking for new tracks to add to my multi-disk Kenwood stereo system. And, of course, I’d be writing this piece on a Tip-Ex-stained typewriter, calling it an ‘article’ instead of a ‘blog’.

I’m only 34.

A previous incarnation

Before I went to university I trained as a journalist with the Sunday Times. I also spent some time with The Sun, where Kelvin MacKenzie reigned supreme. Fleet Street was long-gone but there were still plenty of old-skool hacks bumping their way around Wapping, cobbling together news through the eyes of a liquid lunch. Far from condoning these boozy escapades, it seemed they were encouraged. As a wet-behind-the-ears 19 year-old I couldn’t understand what the deal was there, but I liked the thought of it. Now, of course, I get it. They were networking.

The social circle

The meteoric rise of social sites like Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn have changed the way people interact. I embrace these channels with a generous amount of gusto because I think they’re wonderful modes of communication (except Facebook – I can’t stand Facebook); bringing people together that would otherwise pass through life like metaphoric ships in the night. For their social interaction, digital networking platforms – both business and social – are amazing. But they are not actually that social, are they? What’s social about sending a message through a wire or a pipe or a signal? Surely this is anti-social?

So whilst I think online communication is great, I much prefer meeting people face-to-face, over a beer or two – having a ‘real’ chat in a ‘real’ place in ‘real’ time. Twitter may help facilitate these meetings – and to that I tip my hat – but the tangible relationship-building happens amidst a handshake, a smile and the instant reaction to a question or a comment; rather than the falseness of a considered online response.

For me networking has come full-circle. It’s about taking online, offline; getting back to basics. Social networks are only skin-deep. If you want to make real contacts, develop proper relationships and make new friends, grab a beer (or a coffee) and have a good-old chat. And if you’re worried about losing contact with your virtual, piped world, I won’t mind you leaving your G4 on the table, right next to my Rubik’s Cube.