Why does nobody warn you that a $250 "networking" conference pass in Phoenix buys you one lukewarm coffee and a guy named Dale | Chance Encounters - Chatter Central
Why does nobody warn you that a $250 "networking" conference pass in Phoenix buys you one lukewarm coffee and a guy named Dale
Paid $250 last March for a small business meetup at a hotel near the Phoenix airport, and the whole thing was three speakers reading off slides about "synergy" plus a sad fruit tray. The one real connection I made was Dale, who cornered me by the coffee urn for 40 minutes to talk about his boat. Ended up grabbing lunch with a woman in line behind me who ran a print shop, and she now does all my flyers for cost. So the ticket was a bust but the line for cold coffee was not. Has anyone actually found a cheap way to meet useful people that is not just standing around a hotel lobby?
Ugh, the coffee urn guy is ALWAYS named Dale. Here's my hot take, skip the conferences and go where people are already stuck together for a bit. I've had way better luck at local chamber mixers that cost $10 and library small biz classes, mostly because nobody's there to sell you a boat. The trick is boring rooms with small groups, not big shiny events.