At Ignite DC 6, Joseph Price spoke about the mundane postings we’ve all become conditioned to seeing on Facebook and other social networking sites. He dared to ask “Why are you doing this?”
Ignite DC is taking speaker submissions until April 25. What would you tell a rambunctious, socially lubricated crowd if you had just five minutes and 20 slides to capture your story?
It’s also not too soon to purchase tickets for the June 2 event being held in DC.
In honor of the 100th anniversary of International Women’s Day today, UK nonprofit partnership EQUALS released the video below in an effort to remind viewers that despite the leaps and bounds in women’s rights from suffrage to access to education, women are far from equal footing with men all around the world.
Iconic character James Bond (as currently portrayed by Daniel Craig) literally stands in a woman’s shoes as an off-screen M, voiced by Dame Judi Dench, recites a set of sobering statistics proving just how far women still have to go for true equality.
“Are we equals? Until the answer is yes, we must never stop asking.”
Am I interesting enough?
Isn’t that really the main concern tucked away at the back of our minds? Can I launch a conversation on emerging technology that will keep folks’ attention, or will the people nearest me beg off like Agatha Christie’s 10 Little Indians? Will that corner bubbling with social discourse welcome me into a discussion of this month’s worthwhile networking events with a charity tie-in, or will I be standing adjacent like a tool? Am I conversation kindling or a conversation killer?
The longer you consider the evidence that’s been warped by your own insecurities, the more likely you’re going home without new connections. Thus, my thrill that social technology lets you cheat just enough to be a pro-active attendee.
A long-standing rule of networking for the social anxious: Stay until you’ve met X people relevant to interest Y. If you meet 3 people relevant to the work you do, or 5 people in a book club or writing group that could sponsor your entry, then you have met your quantitative target for the evening. At that point, you’re either relaxing a bit and getting lost in conversation, or you’re calling it a night and congratulating yourself for sticking it out until you met that goal.
And here is where social tech makes life a bit easier. Branded happy hours are popping up on Eventbrite because it offers easy registration and ticket purchasing. Groups with an established Facebook presence are sharing their events on the site for easy head counts and forwarding to friends. People are sharing their event intentions on PlanCast, which builds word-of-mouth for those outings, trainings or social calls.
By default, online RSVPs are increasingly siding with attendee list transparency, which can help you decide between a handful of overlapping events. If you’re looking to make new connections, an event with all the usual suspects is OK to skip, but if you’re having a rough week, you may just want to hang out with friendly faces.
And, more importantly, it helps you figure out who you want and need to meet in advance, allowing you to craft a more targeted networking objective for yourself. Eventbrite registrations are my favorites because the event producers typically ask for employer and social media profile information from attendees. That information is often included beneath the event listing, making it easy to quickly scan the list for people and companies that could be of interest.
With the inclusion of links to corporate websites, blogs, LinkedIn profiles and Twitter handles, you can do your homework and have a few questions and comments in mind when you stumble across your networking targets at the event. You avoid any panic in coming up with a conversation topic on the spot. A public RSVP list allows you to make that first impression less generic and to feel more in control, so you’ll be less focused on the happy hour specials and more engaged with the crowd.
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