Fast or slow? Choose your networking options
North County Times
The 5-Minute Networking mini-interviews make communication easy by providing structure and focus, said participants in Tuesday's event, held at the El Camino Country Club. Participants talked in pairs at a number of small tables.
When the five minutes were up, each moved to a different table in a prearranged fashion. This ensured that everyone got to talk to everyone. A North County Times reporter participated in the interviews, moving with the rest.
"I like the fact that you can meet so many people and not feel pressured," said Jennifer Reed, a mortgage planning consultant at American Pacific Homes in Carlsbad. Reed is looking to expand her company's reach beyond its traditional base of home-builder clients.
"We don't want to be known just as a builder's lender," Reed said.
A. Lee Watson of Carlsbad describes his organization, the National Organization for the Self Employed.
"It's a nonprofit service organization with 1 million members," Watson said. The group pools members' purchasing power to provide indemnity health insurance and other benefits.
"Our motto is, you're in business for yourself, but not by yourself."
5 Minute Networking is good for newcomers "who don't feel comfortable walking up to a stranger," Watson said. "It's like a business square dance."
Andy Yates of Oceanside is new to the investment property business. He was in construction for 30 years, a job where the normal communication mode with workers was "point, yell and scream."
But talking with business people requires a more refined method of conversation. That's what he's trying to learn through networking events.
More information about 5 Minute Networking is available here: tinyurl.com/mggrv.
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