"All human life is here" was a famous newspaper strap-line but it also applies to most of the networking events I've been to - and I find them fascinating.
From the timid newcomers who shuffle slowly around the edge in a strangely isolated manner, hoping in vain to catch someone's attention.... to the brash dominating over-confident "experts" who sweep through the room leaving a scattering of useless business cards like so much flotsam and jetsam in their ample wake. The over-the-top happy smiley people holding court in the middle of the room and the sullen lush hooked on to the bar with a makeshift seat-belt; yes, all human life is here.
A business networking event is like no other I can think of. It's a casual occasion but with a formal intent; social but with serious business in mind and therefore easy to misunderstand. So, if investing a sizable chunk of the marketing budget on networking events, it might be worth the effort to think a little more deeply about how to most effectively spend all that effort and time on them.
Back in the day, before all this internet stuff and agricultural-hour breakfast-fests, most social-business networking was done at trade fairs so we all knew there was an allocated fixed budget and that results would be measured.... but it seems that much of the collective experience gained during that time has been lost.
Does anyone know of a business networking training program by any chance? I mean somewhere aspiring entrepreneurs can find out about how to work a room and learn how they might gain and contribute during the experience rather than at best waste their and everyone else's time and at worst simply piss people off.
Maybe I could tap in to the collective wisdom here on this platform?.
What has worked best when approaching someone in a networking room? Is it best to speak to people standing on their own or is it best to approach a group of three or four and what do you say?
What opening lines or questions work best and if you move to a one-to-one situation what questions might you ask and in what order?
Oh, and maybe you could throw in a few effective chat-up lines while you're about it 
Phil Shepherd
GOOISOFT
Great minds think differently
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Source: http://www.ecademy.com/node.php?id=182585
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