106 ways to network like a pro.

Bloggers read books so you don’t have to. Keith Farrazzi’s new book, Never Eat Alone provides insight on how to network like a pro. Over at Life Optimizer, the essentials of the book are summed up in 106 Tips to Become a Master Connector.

Networking is truly at the heart of why most people come to conferences. Yes, it is great to see famous keynote speakers and participate in interesting break out sessions. But the true value an attendee walks away with is measured by the number of meaningful relationships that have been created or nurtured with face-to-face time.

Here’s some that I think are particularly germane for conference dwellers:

• Spend your time at conferences to meet people – an all-too-common misperception is conferences are places to find insight. Wrong. Conferences are good for mainly one thing: they provide a forum to meet like-minded people.
• Find out others’ interests – find a way to become part of those things that are of most interest to them, and you will have found a way to become part of their life.
• Don’t eat alone – food has a unique ability to facilitate conversation. Eating with other people is an effective way to build relationships.
• Organize and manage your information – the successful organization and management of the information that makes connecting flourish is vital. If you’re organized, focused, and a stickler for taking names, there’s no one that’s out of reach.
• Know the most important players in your field - to make your goals possible, map the most important players in your field. Write down a list of “influentials” in that field.
• Follow up or fail – when you meet someone with whom you want to establish a relationship, take the extra little step to ensure you won’t be lost in their mental attic. Follow-up is the key to success in any field.
• Make other people more successful – real networking is about finding ways to make other people more successful. It is sharing your knowledge and resources, time and energy, friends and associates, and empathy and compassion in a continual effort to provide value to others, while coincidentally increasing your own.

There are some very cool new social networking tools that some companies are using (along with meeting registration software) to make networking easier. Attendees can create profiles that list their interests and expectations and can then find and connect to other people with similar profiles and goals. I’ve had the opportunity to poke around two of these systems – EventMingle and Leverage Software, and both show a lot of promise for making event experiences more valuable and perhaps a glimpse at the future of planning and production.

By the way, Keith Ferrazzi does keynotes for meetings – for more information check out his website and info for meeting planners.