Month completed: September 2009

Introducing yourself to others is never an easy thing to do.

Although people almost always say hello back, exchange your handshake or smile back, starting a conversation with a complete stranger is never easy.

So to achieve this goal, I wanted to go somewhere that I would have to introduce myself.

That place, I decided, would be a networking event. One in which I went on my own, and knew not a sole who was there.

And what better networkers are there than entrepreneurs? Not many.

So on Tuesday I went to an entrepreneurs event in west London, on the Thames, which someone handed me a pamphlet for.

Aimed with business cards and a big smile I entered.

Immediately I looked for someone on their own, to start a conversation with.

He was almost relieved when I started speaking with him, which reminded me that starting conversations with strangers is an almost universal fear.

Once we started talking we then became a magnet for others to join our conversation, and by the end of the night, I had spoken to and exchanged business cards with well over the 10 people I was after for this goal.

The event finished at 9pm, but I had such a great time meeting new people that I was one of the last to leave, at 11pm.

I am now looking to feed my entrepreneurial desire, so will definitely be trying to go to more networking events and continuing to say hi to strangers (within reason!).

p.s Apologies for the lack of recent posts – a lot of my time is taken training for the half-marathon at the moment.

[Image via here]