Network forums any good? If you need a pen (with logo)

Networking. No longer only used when referring to a number of computers that are connected. The act of networking is now what many people hail as a critical element to any business venture and thus business success. I mostly agree with this sentiment. Knowing a number of people in key positions definitely makes it easier to succeed. The old saying “It is not what you know, but who you know” surely carries some weight.

The question I ponder today however, is not if networking is important, but rather, if the many so-called network forums are any good.

Many forums are being credited as the perfect environment to build a network. Typically they arrange talks, social events and lo-and-behold, golf days, to get “like minded” business people together. (I am not holding my breath to get invited to something really creative and original in the near future).

So who are “like minded” professionals? Does someone printing business cards, who opens boring bank accounts, or sells insurance qualify as “like minded”? Maybe between themselves?

But they do not qualify as people that I would like to exchange business cards with. They are only attending the function to hand me a pen with a logo (ohh goody, I always wanted one of those – you are sooo original) and to sell me a product or service I can buy from a few hundred companies. Why in the world would I like to “network” and spend hours of my precious time making idle chatter with a glorified clerk? Surely their “esteemed” companies already spent thousands of Rand on a website. I will use Google to find a bank, printer, sign writer, insurance broker or any other mundane service provider, if I ever have a need for it. No need to entice me into buying from you by sponsoring a function (handing out logo-enriched paraphernalia) and boring me with your sales talk, and pretending to add some value. I have more than enough pens, caps, t-shirts, umbrellas, post it notes, highlighters and other useless items to last a lifetime (mine), and my daughter’s and my garden man’s.

So before you attend, or accept an invitation to, a business forum (or yet another, yes yet another, golf day), pretending to offer an “ideal” opportunity to network, think twice… no thrice. Unless you run out of pens or want to desperately get out of the office (in which event you are not an executive and proves my point even further), rather give  your money to charity. At least a homeless person or terminally ill patient will breath a little easier, even if only for a day or two.

By all means, attend ONE of these functions ONCE a year. Maybe, just maybe, there is a slim chance of bumping into an old colleague, a long lost friend, a potential mistress, or a real executive that is worth networking with. The odds are against it, but hey, we can all keep on hoping… and dreaming.

Anyone knows when the next sponsored golf day will take place? I have a desperate need to network with a business card printer and … someone to open a bank account for my business.