With all the talk, and seriously, everyone is talking about going green … I’ve been thinking about green networking. How exactly can someone change their habits with regard to networking to reduce their impact on the environment?
I think one of the best ways to go green with networking is to make a better plan of it. And that simply means, plan your networking so that you get more accomplished with more people for the time you spend.
Instead of meeting with one person (commonly called a one on one meeting) set up your networking so that you are in front of more people. When someone asks you to go meet them for coffee or for lunch, suggest that at least 2 or 3 other people be invited as well. This makes it better for everyone in that all the attendees are getting more connections out of the same amount of time.
Additionally, you can schedule other business or personal errands around your networking time so that you make one car trip to get many things accomplished.
When you know that you are going to attend a large networking function, see if you can get a list of the attendees prior to the event. Even if the list is just a list of names with the business name, you can do a little research online via google or your favorite search engine to get the contact info you are looking for. You can set up mini-meets with key people that you would like to get to know better for before or after the main event. In that way, you’ve made one trip AND you’ve maximized your contacts during your time at the event.
Finally, there is usually a fair amount of paper passed out at networking events. Only take flyers of things you are interested in. Same thing with business cards. Take only from the folks that you are planning on following up with. If you do find that you can’t say no to a flyer or a business card, please be sure to put them in the recylce bin rather than just throwing them away.
I’m sure that there are many more ways to be green in your networking and if you would like to share those with me, please be sure to leave a comment.
Happy green connecting!