Have you ever been to a bad networking session? Maybe it was a free-for-all at the beginning of a conference. Maybe it was a disguised as a happy hour at a bar. Maybe you didn’t get the chance to talk to anyone, or worse yet got stuck talking to someone for way too long. Maybe you just talked about the weather and didn’t get to talk about your idea or what you needed or provide any insight or assistance to anyone. It was just like hanging out awkwardly at a bar. There are a lot of opportunities for improvement and innovation with networking.
I’ve been working with the University of Wisconsin Office of Human Resource Development on innovating the networking session. It is like a facilitated workshop. It is part thinking about important questions, working on your “how you quickly communicate elevator speech,” part group introduction, and part one-on-one or one-on-two speed networking. In this jam session people leave with a more comfortable and activity filled experience. They get to share with the whole group, hear from everyone, and go deeper one on one with many new people. They actually get to connect and converse! We can bring the Innovative Networking Session to your event or group or jam with us at UW!