Two events in two days. Crazy fun, plus networking isn't all that bad.

This week we had put on two different events for our partners, a viewing party for the Perth Spirit game on Thursday and an archery sundowner on Friday.

The planning had begun about a month out,it started with a save the date for the Friday event, letting partners know of the time and date, nothing else as we planned something new and fun that many of them had never done.
Last week the proper invites were sent out, and I started getting back confirmations and declines straight away, I thought this was going to be easy, but boy was I wrong. By the morning of the RSVP date, I was still waiting. I had to send out reminder emails and then follow up calls.

The worst thing about sending the reminder emails and then calling and calling again, was that it just felt like I was nagging them and that just sucked. But I knew how important it was to finalize names and numbers for catering and team grouping purposes.

Because we were giving prizes away and really didn't have much to give, I had come up with a list of sponsors and the prizes that they could grant us. My boss told me the best way to do this is to put them on the spot with a phone call, then once they say yes, follow it up with an email. This was actually quite easy to do, many gave up prizes and they were great, not many said no. So I made laminates of the prizes to attached to the targets and info letters for them to redeem their prize.

The Thursday event was very low-key, food and drinks all for the 20 or so guests at the pub, chasing up RSVPs for that wasn't a priority. I spent most of the night talking to a some partners and clients.
Same on the Friday, I found that one of the partners enjoys Emu Export as much as I do.

Networking isn't really all that difficult, I guess what's daunting is that as uni students, it's just not something we want to do, are interested in or have little care at all, plus it's how do we approach these people and what do we talk about. I found that you can talk about everything and nothing at the same time and everyone is aware that they'll be talking to people they don't know. What made it easy for me is that all these partners are guests and I've just to to make sure their comfortable and enjoying themselves. It doesn't hurt to talk about non-work related things too and I don't think many want to, they just want a few drinks and some a bit of socializing here and there.

So next time you have to 'network' don't dread it, just don't think about it, you'll actually enjoy it and learn alot about other people. That way it doesn't feel like networking, but more like relationship building.