As I was sitting on the roll of carpet taking my cell phone call during the show set up, first one then several others walked by and shook my hand and mouthed hello.
Later that day, a former colleague holding her cell phone with the Facebook image I had posted, walked up behind me and said hello for the first time in a number of years.
Faces became attached to names that had only been email signatures and phone voices as the day wore on.
Such is the power of a trade show to bring people together and renew acquaintances and old friendships. But more importantly it illustrated to me just how many people I have in my network. And something you should all realize as well.
The circles that I run in, in this case the retail point-of-sale industry, have many links into and out of them. The joke is that there is a defined number of jobs between 4 or 5 companies and people just rotate between them on a cycle of 2 to 3 years. People know one another, competitor to partner, customer or provider. It is a defined community.
So it probably is with your industry. Who do you know and do they (or how do they) know you? Would your contacts know each other if they didn’t have you as a common contact? Do you run into people you haven’t seen in a while or do people recognize you and you don’t recognize them?
Be tuned into your networks…that’s networks, plural: personal, professional, industry, company, by your specialty (sales, marketing, whatever). Know who you know and who knows you.
Relentless
