Networking when you do not want to

We all know that networking is important, and is a vital part of a successful career. For many of us, that requires going to events and meeting new people. Yet, when you ask most people how much they like networking events, they’ll tell you they’d rather do most anything than make small talk with a room full of strangers.

It doesn’t take extreme introversion to dislike networking events — even for an extrovert they can be hard work. Here are some tips to make a networking conversation start and flow with less effort.

 Location Use your setting – a conference centre, a party, a city – to start off the conversation. For instance, you can say: “Attendance looks higher than last year, how long have you been coming to these conventions?”

 Ask for advice
Asking for advice can be both a conversation starter, and a useful way to get helpful information. If the person you’re talking
to has attended the event before, ask what they thought was helpful about it, or what other events they attend. These kinds of questions can get the conversation fl owing.

Come prepared

Many networking experts suggest taking a quick glance at the day’s news stories before you head out to an event so you can ask others about current events. You can come up with discussion points on general interest topics as well.

Ask and listen

Sometimes the best small talk is not talking at all. Learn to ask great questions that get others to talk. Remember that people love to talk about themselves, especially when they have an attentive listener. In order to keep the conversation going, keep asking curious questions. You only have to know a minimal amount about a topic to ask smart questions.