Welcome To The Land Flowing With Milk And Honey

This is a special edition for the AFRES Conference and I just want to welcome the delegates world over. We appreciate your coming and participation in this conference and wish you a very jolly stay and harvest of applicable knowledge and new networks. Welcome to one of the world’s most blessed Nation!

I personally can’t wait for the conference to start, although I am out of town now I will be arriving with other delegate just in time not to miss any action. I have gone through the conference programme and outline of Papers to be presented and all that just makes me not to be able to wait.

We all attend conferences like this for various reasons but key amongst them is usually NETWORKING. Places like this give you the most opportunity to get and cultivate new contacts. While we are set to do that, I do like to share a tip or two about networking that I think will help you with the contacts you make at this conference.

Follow through. Yes, follow through, networkers spend lots of energy making initial contacts without a proper cultivation down the line and the link goes off naturally. I use to be very awful with that. I have loads of call cards and personal details of promising contacts that I either never followed through at all or enough.

Following through takes persistence but really starts with a good conversation. You listen generously and are seriously curious to find out what’s on your conversation partner’s agenda. As it is commonly said, the best Follow Through is based on the other person’s Agenda, not yours.

Suggest another meeting during that first conversation with your new contact. You should try to have a series of between 6 to 9 encounters to establish a networking relationship. Avoid having to initiate every meeting though.

Getting back with your new contact will be easier if these three parameters are in place:

Chemistry, Commitment and Commonality.

So, watch out for the these things in your networking effects at the conference.  

I will be looking out to meet you in person.

To your success!