Columns - November/December 2007

Networking Tactics
Empowering Attendees To Connect
By Pegine Echevarria

The general session is about to start. You enter the grand ballroom with a friend or two and quickly look for a seat together. As you sit, others sit next to you, near you and in front of you. You give the half smile that communicates “Hi” and leave it at that. The lights dim and the

Pegine Echevarria is a leadership empowerment speaker and author. Pegine was inducted into the Motivational Speakers Hall of Fame, whose members include Dale Carnegie, Zig Ziglar and Tony Robbins. Visit www.pegine.com to interact about leadership and sign up for her free ezine.

music starts. For the next hour you hear speakers, announcements and entertainers. The lights come up, you exit, you smile and chat with your friend.

What you didn’t know was that the person in front of you wanted the exact service you offer, the person behind you was looking for a coat just like yours, the person next to you had an opportunity that is perfect for your child, and you had a solution for the person two seats away.

Missed Opportunities
Too often when people attend meetings and conferences opportunities are missed, connections are never forged and relationships are never built because they aren’t given the chance to meet, connect and talk. Cocktail parties are not the only way to network.

What meetings and conferences need are processes that encourage and deliver opportunities, connections and relationships for all involved.

Here are five ways you can empower your participants to connect and play together.

1. Break Up Cliques. Participants will have more than enough time to get together with their buddies throughout the conference. One of the goals of conferences is to meet new people and learn new ideas. Using color coding, you can break up people into different groups so that they can meet new friends. Depending on the group, it can be simple or elaborate depending on the goals of the conference.

The most simple solution is having the room decorated in four different colors. Participants are instructed to sit according to their lanyard color. Each table has an envelope with instructions such as, “Whoever is to the right of the person reading the instructions begins. Introduce yourself, where you come from and what you hope to gain at this conference. Each person introduces themselves the same way.”

An elaborate color-coded process can include senior leaders hosting different colored tables. Within each color area, units, divisions and all echelons of the organization are represented. They are randomly mixed with as much variety as possible. People begin to network cross-department, cross-expertise level and cross-managerial levels. The senior leaders host and facilitate introductions and ask provocative questions to create discussion groups. The meeting planner’s preparation includes meeting with senior leaders to offer guidance in facilitation skills. The bonus is that C-suite members connect and meet face-to-face with midlevel leaders, a key component for succession planning, employee retention and reinforcement of employee engagement.

Another activity includes providing tabletop questions and giving clear directions from the stage: “Discuss the following and come up with three ideas as a team.” Each color group has a random winner (each member wins a prize). The results of solutions are compiled and shared during a lunch or dinner with the whole group. This technique has resulted in ideas that have improved customer service, lowered costs and increased profits. The whole group benefits from the “think tank” experience.

2. Tasking The Team is a strategy to bridge the experience and expertise of individuals. Breaking down silos, increasing communication and having career success requires, what I’ve termed, a “leverage network.” With all the online social networks, people have begun to

What meetings and conferences need are processes that encourage and deliver opportunities, connections and relationships for all involved.

collect people and preen about how many people are in their network. However, they do not have the relationships with those people to ask for help. Leverage networking is for everyone. It is not who you know, it is who do you know who knows you and who you can, willingly, call and ask for help, advice or introductions. Think about your own network: How many people can you call right now, without any concern, and ask for help? How many people do you know who would be willing to call you?

Tasking the team is a process that you can implement in your conventions so that people within your organization can connect and experience each other’s knowledge and skills while building their own leverage network. Conventions that cater to college and university student leadership groups incorporate interactive, network-building team tasks that build cohesion, fun and participation. These team tasks include competitions where attendees are randomly placed in teams and given a task that must be completed, usually within 24 hours. They include social responsibility activities, entrepreneurial activities (“Apprentice” style), and engineering feats using paper cups, towels or pipe cleaners. The convention attendees vote on the winning team, funniest team, creative team, etc. However, the ulterior motive is connections, networking and experiencing the strengths and skills of others.

3. Dance Lessons is an interactive approach that introduces a new concept so that everyone has the same experience. When groups share like experiences they bond rapidly. Line dances are great and so are ballroom dances, which are very simple. Many people are shy and may not want to participate. In order to overcome their shyness and engage their participation, use actors, dressed like the participants, to play the awkward, shy participant willing to learn to dance. Once they see someone like them out there, participants are willing to play. They want to participate, they just don’t want to be the first one to be the “fool.” Let the actor be the first one (acting as the shy person). Involve shy people in different activities that support the dancing such as giving them disposable digital cameras to capture the event.

4. Small Steps Lead To Giant Gains. Interactive processes can build throughout the conference culminating in powerful connections. These include games of strategy, intrigue and scavenger hunts. As participants arrive, provide instructions of what they need to collect by the end of the conference. Give them a business card portfolio to collect business cards. Instruct them to note on the cards what was discussed, and where they met. Their journeys can include a visit to a room or workshop that introduces a new product the company is offering. They have to exchange a business card with someone in the room. At the closing during dinner, people share whom they met and what they learned. Remind them before they arrive at the conference to bring plenty of cards. Have a kiosk where they can make quick business cards if they forgot theirs.

5. Training The Audience. By incorporating interactive processes throughout the event, participants become energized and build an expectation of interaction throughout the conference. This requires careful planning and clarity of expectations of speakers, vendors and staff.

Interaction, combined with learning, requires creativity, energy, a focus on the participant’s experience and courage. Interaction requires risk. Again, attend a college leadership conference. They expect interaction, and they are your future employees.

Creativity is required in interactive conferences. You want to keep participants on their toes. To maintain that level of excitement you need energy. Energy is key. Most people are sedate, especially if they are from a stiff culture. To raise their energy, awaken their “soul” energy. Staffing is key — bring in actors to raise the level of energy. Use actors to sit in the seats and energize the audience by “acting” as energized audience members.

Focus on the participants: What do they need? Have silos been built within the organization? Has there been a merger and people don’t know each other? Focus on their needs and how you can help them relate, interact and evolve their relationships.

Interaction requires courage on the meeting planner’s part. Meeting people is difficult and requires courage. By having courage to incorporate interactive activities you encourage your participants to be courageous people. They need your courage so they can grow their connections at your conference.    I&FMM