298: Networking In A Time Of Covid

<p>For the last two and a half years business networking has been dead.  The usual suspects who hosted live networking events migrated everything online, so you become totally restricted in your ability to create any relationship with the people attending the event.  The hosts kick it off, the speaker speaks, the Q&A gets underway, the hosts wrap it up and you are left hanging there, without any good means of connecting with possible clients on the call.  The hosts these days, don’t release who is on the call, so you are left with the names shown on screen, which can often be single names, initials, even numbers and not much help to try and find them later on LinkedIn.</p> <p> </p> <p>Lately, very tenuously, some face to face networking events have been taking place in Tokyo.  Everyone is wearing masks, doing fist or elbow bumps and being careful, trying hard not to catch Covid from each other.  It is a curious sales activity though, because you are literally weighing up the amount of new business you can find at the networking event, against how sick you will become if you catch Covid at the event.  That is a hell of a thought for a salesperson.  Nevertheless, that is where we are today and that is our reality.  It feels like you are throwing the dice every time you go to one of these in-person events.  Will I get the deal and not get Covid, is the equation in mind.  Is it worth it?  Are the risks warranted?</p> <p> </p> <p>This is a scary prospect, because most people catch Covid from people who themselves may not even be aware they have it.  The little temperature gauges being used at the door give the temperature reading, but the individual may be infected, but the fever hasn’t kicked in in yet.  The best we can do is to make sure the host are checking people’s temperatures, have plenty of hand cleaners available, keep or mask on as much as possible and try to keep some distance from people.  Eating and drinking is a problem, because off come the masks and then they don’t back on again.  I was at the first ne