Nyetworking

Dear Alisa and Gina,

I attended a networking event last week. There was a large group there, and it started off with a specific exercise to promote networking and make sure that attendees maximized contact with others in the room. After some very clear instructions on how to use the time, the person next to me started a conversation instead of keeping to the agenda. Another woman joined us and next thing I knew person number one was giving us both the nitty gritty details of her entire résumé. I tried to steer the conversation to a third person who had joined in and even tried to include a fourth person in the group to broaden the discussion. Nothing worked. What should I have said to her – or done to get her to stay on topic? ~ Stymied

One of the basic tenets of networking is that we all attend in order to meet many people and share information about ourselves. When you encounter someone who hangs on to you, and prevents you from doing what you came to do, just smile and say, “well I planned to meet four new people today, so I’m going to mingle a bit.” ~ Alisa

When stuff like that happens, I usually just take a bathroom break. ~ Gina