How to introduce yourself to network at conferences
This formula makes it easy to introduce yourself and to tailor your intro to who you want to meet.
When you introduce yourself in business, you want to present yourself as the right and best person for the job. When you introduce yourself for networking, present yourself in the most interesting light.
Work the Mad Lib
I learned this introduction format from design leader, Christina Wodtke (@cwodtke), who I think learned it from executive coach, Harry Max (@harrymax). Answer three questions:
- Your name
- Your role and company
- The most interesting thing about where you work
It works kind of like a Mad Lib:
Hello, my name is your name.
I am a your role at your organization
Where I the most interesting thing you do.
For example, my intro might go like this:
Hello, my name is Austin Govella.
I am a User Experience Lead at
Where I help enterprises transform how they connect with employees.
As with business introductions, tailor your role, so the audience understands. For example, for general audiences, I might describe myself as a Project Lead instead of a UX Lead.
Be interesting
The last part makes the magic: the most interesting thing you do where you work.
In a networking setting, crammed into a small spaces with dozens of others, you want to stand out and sparkle. But not to everyone. To people interested in your uniqueness.
When you describe the most interesting thing about where you work, you highlight what your sparkle. This won’t pique everyone’s interest, but for some people, your interestingness will make you stand out to them.
When I introduce myself as someone who drives large, transformational projects, some people cringe. That’s not interesting to them. But to those it does interest, we’ll likely have a deeper level of connection than if we were two non-differentiated web designers.
Just like you tailor your role to the audience, tailor your interestingness for the conversations you want to have and the people you want to meet. For example, in design thinking contexts, maybe my interestingness is that I help drive the design thinking capability at a global consulting organization.
Depending on where and with whom you network, different things will interest you. It makes sense to adjust your interestingness according to where you are.
Anyway… happy interestingness and interesting people…
Originally published at https://www.agux.co on April 25, 2022.
Beautiful beach photo by Kimson Doan on Unsplash
