Same networking group, two different meetups, night and day difference

I went to a Detroit chamber of commerce mixer last month and it was just people handing out cards for 2 hours, no real conversations. Then a buddy dragged me to a small gathering at a coffee shop in Corktown put on by some local founders group. The difference was the format - no scheduled talks, just a prompt to ask about someone's biggest win that week. I ended up swapping services with a graphic designer after talking for 15 minutes. Has anyone else found that smaller casual meetups work way better than the big official events around here?

3 comments

3 Comments

hugo_jones8d ago

What is it about name tags and catered food that turns people into robots? Big events always feel like a sprint to hand out cards before the pizza gets cold. Those tiny coffee shop hangs actually force you to talk like a human being.

matthew8648d ago

Name tags just set the wrong tone right off the bat. You see "Senior Sales Director" and your brain goes straight to work mode instead of human mode. Catered food makes it worse cause everyone's hovering around the table like vultures, not really talking, just loading up plates. Coffee shop hangs don't have any of that pressure, you can just lean on a counter and complain about the weather until something real comes up.

williams908d ago

Hugo, don't you think the pizza thing is a bit overblown though? @hugo_jones I've been to big events where the food lasts way longer than the small talk. The real problem is those name tags force you to read someones job title before you even say hi, so you end up leading with business instead of just asking what they're into. Coffee shop hangs work because there's no clipboard and no timeline, just people standing around awkwardly until someone cracks a joke.

-1