March 25, 2011
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Featured Response
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Pete Cafarchio
I recently went to South by Southwest (SXSW) in Austin. In the few hours I spent in the airport and on the plane, I met three great people: a senior executive at a wireless carrier, an interactive executive at a big insurance company and the head of a large nursing home who invited me to speak in Austin!
I met these people and I wasn’t even trying that hard. You can do it too and grow your business as you travel through airports.
Many of you fly at least a few times a year for business or pleasure. You spend the time stuffing your face with unhealthy food, checking e-mails, reading books and idly staring into space.
May I suggest that you try, instead, to network with one or two people who could possibly help your business grow?
1. Networking at the airport is different than networking at a networking event. At an event you are THERE to network. At an airport you are there (until today) to get from point A to point B. So don’t start throwing your business cards all over the table and asking people for their Twitter names.
2. The people you can reasonably connect with at the airport are those who are in close proximity to you. Next to you could be a small business owner who wants to buy your water purification system; it could be someone who wants to hire you to speak for them; or it could be a 16-year-old kid on her way to a visit her grandparents who have nothing to do with your industry. You just don’t know. You can't read name tags or get an attendee list ahead of time.
Want to read more about networking? Check these out:
3. You must stereotype your fellow travelers and try to guess who might be a great person to connect with. Stereotyping is not “politically correct” but if you want to network with strangers you have to do this. Look at their luggage. Luggage from Tumi, Swiss Army or other brands (or you can just tell by how it looks) could be pulled by someone who you might find valuable to network with. Look at finger nails, jewelry, hair styles, shoes, suits and etc. These are ONLY clues. The person wearing cut shorts, dirty flip flops and with crumbs in their hair could be your best client. But in the few hours or minutes you have at an airport you have to make judgment calls.
4. Start a simple conversation with the person next to you in the airplane, next to you in the gate area or as you are eating in one of the airport restaurants. Your “intelligence” or reconnaissance in No. 3 will help you decide where to sit. Don’t put luggage or newspapers on the seat next to you or in front of you. You want to encourage people to sit next to you.
5. Now that you’re seated and comfortable (or standing with a pretzel), your conversation happens in three stages. The first part is the ice-breaking. You might want to say, “That’s nice luggage you have, I have the same one." Or my personal favorite is, “My name is Ramon, I’m from New Jersey. Nice to meet you,” and I leave it at that. Most people will respond with who they are. I then follow up with what I do such as, “I help small businesses use technology by producing events. What about yourself” If they seem like someone who might be in synergy with me, I take it from there and we network. If there’s no synergy, you’ve met a nice person and can go to sleep.
Networking is not hard; it just takes some tact, reading people and a willingness to listen. Let me know how your next airport networking experience goes.
Check your balance, review recent transactions and pay your bill on the go.
Pete Cafarchio 1 year 1 months and 23 days ago
I met a great contact on an airplane once. He helps small businesses use technology by producing events. O wait, that was you, Ramon.