Networking the West with Liz Ryan

LinkedIn Networking in Broomfield

By Liz Ryan, 8-13-07

It is refreshingly easy to gather complete strangers together for fruitful networking here in Colorado, evidently. I put a note on LinkedIn Answers a couple of weeks ago, asking for other Boulder-area LinkedIn users to contact me. At the time, I was looking to make contact with other LinkedIn users in the area in order to let them know about an event I was planning with the Ask! in Boulder folks. Ask! in Boulder is an online network that I moderate. Anyway, I had the idea that the local LinkedIn people might want to come to this Ask! in Boulder event. So I posted a notice on LinkedIn Answers, and 25 people responded to me. Nearly all of them, over 20 of them said "I would be game to get together with other Boulder-area LinkedIn users."

That struck me, because I hadn't said Word One in my posting about a physical get-together. I decided to bow to the wishes of the majority and organize a local LinkedIn gathering. So, tonight was the event, a Happy Hour at the Gordon Biersch Brewery in Broomfield. Thirty-one people left business cards -- a few more came and went quickly, so it wasn't a bad turnout at all. Interestingly, I'd only met two of the attendees before, myself, and one of them is Jeff Finkelstein of Customer Paradigm, whom I hadn't seen in at least three or four years. So this LinkedIn Boulder event was the opposite of a clique. It was complete strangers showing up and taking a chance on one another. They were still there networking when I left at 8:00 p.m. (my husband called, our five-year-old hit his head and had to go to the Emergency Room, he's fine, but we have to wake him up every four hours during the night). This suggests to me that we need more all-hands-on-deck networking events in the area.

Back to the Ask! in Boulder event - that is happening on Wednesday August 15th at the Sunflower Restaurant on Pearl Street in Boulder. It's at 5:30 and all are welcome. Too much networking for one week? We will see. I don't think so. Thirty-six people have RSVP'd for the Ask! in Boulder event so far. And I never did mention it on LinkedIn.

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