event playbook.

I went to the city 4 times last week.

3 of them were for work!

This is a big deal when you live over an hour from the city.

2 of the trips were networking events.

Out and about last week. Not seen in frame: my alcohol-free Heineken.

Now - a lot of founders I know hate networking.

I think a lot of this hate is well founded.

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You’re going to meet people pitching their services.

It’s hard to find meaningful connections.

You’re probably going to get bored in some of the presentations.

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So here’s a quick crash course on going about it to make sure your time is well spent.

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Before

• Check the lists of people going if its available - see if you know anyone
• If you don’t - see if there’s anyone you can connect with on LinkedIn ahead of the event - either as a potential partner, ally, or customer, say hi and offer to look out for them at the event
• Not all events share the attendees prior - if not, check out the program and pick the sessions you think are going to be the most useful in advance
• You can also check social media for people announcing they’re attending - this is more common now and some events use a #hashtag - this makes it easy to spot people and connect if it makes sense for you

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During

• Just start chatting to people between sessions. If you’re not in your comfort zone here, just think of it as “practice” for when you’re talking to a big customer or investor
  • Sidebar: Thinking of things like “practice” is a great life hack for a lot of things - and I do this all of the time. I’m on Lunchclub and like to practice my listening (I’m a talker) so I see how long I can keep listening and drawing out stories from the person I’m speaking with. Sometimes I get them going for 30-40 minutes of our 45 minute call and they’re shocked 🤣
• Think quality over volume - don’t think you need to go collecting names and connections willy-nilly - a few longer and interested conversations are always going to be more valuable than 20 forgettable name swaps
• Try and remember names and note them down on a notepad or phone as soon as you can - this makes following up on LinkedIn/email easier later
• You can also turn your LinkedIn (or other profile) into a QR code and save it as a photo on your phone. This makes it really easy for people to scan and connect you

After

• Follow-up, follow-up, follow-up
• It really is that simple - I like to have a follow-up conversation with everyone I’ve met if I can, you just never know where these things can go even if it’s not ideal fit customer (obviously make room for ideal customers first!)
• If you follow-up connect after on LinkedIn, personalising your connection request with something specific helps you remember how you know them when you go into your messages, it’s like a CRM for your brain without doing the data entry
• One underrated after is following up 6-18 months later - this can be an update about what you’ve done since and can be another way to keep things going for your business

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Let me know if that’s helpful?

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One thing I grapple with is how much of what I’m sharing is educational versus just telling you shit you already know, so if it’s the latter just let me know and I’ll do my best to level up the difficulty.

-Marshy

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