Networking has never been my strong suit. I’m not a big fan of it, and I’m not very good at it. It’s not that I don’t like meeting new people, it’s mostly because I don’t like meeting them simply to exchange contact information. I don’t like the idea of just meeting people to fill up my contact list. I prefer to meet people to get to know them, maybe even become friends. Don’t get me wrong, I’m sure that most people don’t just walk around firing off business cards and gathering them with equal speed, I guess I’ve happened to meet those “power” networkers in the past, and so the whole idea leaves a sour taste in my mouth.

While on vacation last week in Vancouver, I thought it might be a good idea to start doing some networking, as having contacts in another city is always a good idea. A current colleague of mine used to live in Vancouver, and has a wonderful contact there who actually helped her find a job here in Toronto! So I dropped him an email and off I went on my networking escapade. We exchanged several emails, and he sent me a whole list of names and email addresses for people in Vancouver that I thought speak to. He was also going to be attending a networking even mid-week, and invited me to come, however as I developed a nasty cold while on vacation, I decided not to go and instead just recuperated at home.

Now that I’m back from my vacation, I’ll start emailing the people on the list I got, and making introductions to all these people that the Networking King  gave me (that’s the nickname I’ve given this contact, as he’s got quite a long list of contacts to pull from.) Stay tuned for more tales from the Networking Escapade as I start making contact with everyone.