10 Effective Ways to Network at Corporate Events

Attending corporate events comes with networking opportunities that can significantly help you build a better career. However, sometimes, it can be difficult to network with other people, especially if it’s your first time or you haven’t done it for a while.

When you think this will be the case, you need to prepare yourself to avoid awkward silence and conversations. Of course, you don’t need to say random things just to save a conversation, so instead, be prepared with topics and things you should talk about that fit the environment.

In this article, we’ll provide some effective ways you can use when networking at corporate events.

1. Define Clear Networking Goals

What is it that you want to achieve when you network at this event? Do you want to find other job opportunities, and clients, learn from experts, or start a new business? In some cases, may just want to network for future references. But no matter what your main goal is, you should prepare to ask questions and listen. Even if at some point you’re having doubts about some people’s advice, you should still take them in.

2. Prepare Your Elevator Pitch

The time given to you during corporate events is limited, so you should prepare your elevator pitch to say everything you need to say without getting interrupted. Usually, 30 seconds should be enough to introduce yourself, and your pitch.

Whether you’re looking for new clients or job opportunities, you should get straight to the point, but still make sure you leave a good impression.

3. Always Be Approachable and Confident

During a networking event, make sure to stay approachable and confident. This allows you to attract more people and easily network with them. Usually, non-verbal cues allow people to think that you’re not interested or too reserved to participate in conversations.

Instead, you should smile often, make eye contact, and start conversations. In addition, try to go to areas where you can meet more people, and don’t just stay in your seat.

4. Ask Open-Ended Questions

The conversation keeps going when you ask open-ended questions. Instead of the plain yes or no questions, try to craft questions that are more relevant to the industry, their experiences, and thoughts about certain topics.

Of course, when you ask questions, you should also listen attentively to their questions, so that they know you’re interested in their answer.

5. Utilise Social Media Before and During the Event

Usually, corporate event management arranges hashtags and content related to the event. This helps them get to know the individuals and businesses that are interested in coming. But aside from the organisers, the online presence of the event also allows you to get to know who will be attending. When you do, you can incorporate this knowledge into your research and preparations.

6. Be Genuine and Build Lasting Relationships

Aside from gaining knowledge, connections, and potential clients, you should also keep in mind that networking is about building long-lasting, authentic relationships. So, even if things don’t work out on the professional side, you can also gain friends along the way. Besides, networking isn’t just about securing potential business, but also increasing the number of connections in the same field or industry.

7.  Plan and Strategise

Staying in the same area may not be the best idea when you’re planning to network as widely as possible. For instance, if you talk to a person, even if things are getting interesting, you should still roam around. You can even ask the person you’re talking to if they want to move around and get to know each other, too.

During your planning process, you should also try to divide each room and decide where you should go first.

8. Bring Business Cards (Physical and Digital Copies)

With the short time you’re going to talk to each person, they might not remember your name and designation. This is why preparing business cards is essential. However, if you want to keep it digital, you can also have a QR code that will directly link them to your LinkedIn account or other contact details.

At the same time, you should also ask for other people’s contact information and business cards.

9. Join Group Discussions and Activities

Group discussions are also interesting, and you can have more opportunities to engage with others. Besides, if there’s a group discussion, you don’t need additional time to talk to each one-by-one, instead, you can gauge what they specifically do, and you can easily decide whether you should talk to them more once the group discussion is done.

10. Don’t Forget to Follow Up After the Event

Networking doesn’t end when the event does. The more significant part of networking, which is the follow-up, should be done to continue your initial conversation. Unless you talked all night and didn't network with others, you need to invite other parties into a follow-up meeting, to guarantee the effectiveness of your initial conversation.

Final Thoughts

Networking isn’t an easy thing to do. You need to prepare and do your research before you start connecting with other people in the professional field. By incorporating these effective ways, you can guarantee making connecting with the people in your industry.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Aliana Baraquio is a content writer for Pink Caviar Events Sydney, a full-service event management and decorative hire company located in Sydney. When she's not typing out blog posts, you can find her watching anime series or baking cupcakes.