5 Tips for Attending Your First Networking Event

Regardless of the size or specific focus of an upcoming corporate networking event, attending such a business-focused function can be nerve-wracking and sometimes, depending on your personality type, often a little intimidating, too. 

So, to alleviate your nerves and help you get the most out of this experience, continue reading to discover five helpful tips for attending your first networking event.

Even though nobody would suggest that what you post on your social media accounts and how you present your professional resume on LinkedIn is anything other than appropriate, the chances are that whomever you connect with at the event, they are likely to ‘google’ you.

It would be logical, therefore, to perform a spring clean on such digital profiles and improve your online presence, to ensure you are presenting yourself as a professional, hardworking, and ambitious go-getter (without outright lying, of course!). 

Active listening is essential to building relationships in both your personal and professional life. In the context of networking, you will need to start conversations off of your own back, with people you find interesting and practice active listening.

The following tips will help you do this:

• Pay attention to the other person’s body language
• Avoid interrupting them
• Try to withhold any of your particularly strong or controversial opinions
• Keep focused and live in the moment of the conversations
• Maintain eye contact (without coming off as creepy)

There is an important and delicate balance that you need to strike between presenting the truthful, yet best, version of yourself to professionals within your own industry whom you respect and being able to stay approachable and not come across as arrogant.

The best way to do this is to rehearse, naturally, a little pitch about yourself in just a couple of sentences that communicates what you do, what you are looking to do in the future and your strengths. 

Premium, high-class venues such as The Riverhouse are the perfect venue, with business event halls allowing networking events to fill up an entire evening. No matter the exact set times, it will benefit you hugely to spend the entire time there and not leave early. 

The last thing you want is to make a positive and useful first impression on someone who can help you reach the next business tier, only to be usurped later in the night by someone else once you have left. 

Finally, if you find yourself talking to someone in a different department and concentrating on a different specialty than yourself, even though they may not be a useful connection to you, do not hesitate to recommend them to someone else you have met while networking. This will show you to be a generous networker who is very much a team player, something that is absolutely crucial in business.

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