My night as a Cavaliero
I wrote about the event on my blog http://theyuenfamilyblog.blogspot.com/2009/03/fior-di-risorse-networking-italian.html as well as raising a question on the LinkedIn as to the purpose for networking. I am merely a guest here in Italy and am interested in understanding the culture of my hosts and I am not attempting any criticism of my experience. People are different!
I noted a recent episode of Ugly Betty in which networking was the theme. She was tasked with finding 40 new contacts from which she could help her career advance. Her friends were coaching her on how to network and explained that each contact must be able to help you in some way. Being an American, I see the truth to this approach. The “quid pro quo”. The “what’s in it for me”. We don’t do anything without advancing some interest.
Americans network everyday and everywhere… networking events can be sports events, movie theatres, restaurants, coffee shops and even grocery stores. On Facebook I saw an old high school classmate of mine who had struck it rich selling his company during the dotcom boom of the 1990s and was still active as an investor, simply announce that he was going to Yahoo out in Mountain View, California. Minutes later a reply came up from the CEO of another company in Silicon Valley asking if he had time for a cup of coffee. Another few minutes later they agreed on where and when and “boom” a meeting takes place. Fast, cheap and efficient. I contrast this style of networking with its informality, ease and speed to what I have observed so far.
The event at Tavola di Cavalieri took place on a Monday night in a remote area outside of Assisi. It took the organizer(s) time to pick the place and to negotiate with the management and then it took a few more days to organize who was going to show up. The location itself was beautiful. BUT it was at least an additional half hour outside of Assisi, in the dark of night, on a narrow country road and in the rain. In the end, the appearance of FdR guests represented a huge investment in time and effort.
I noticed that many of the participants at Tavola di Cavalieri were in the Human Resource field. Fair enough! What would a Human Resource person want from networking? Leads to employers seeking employees? Employees seeking employment? Something tangible. That would make sense to me, but that isn’t what I saw or heard. Instead I heard talk about how FdR wanted to get local entrepreneurs to come speak to them about their success stories and in exchange FdR members would share their professionalism. I did not quite understand the fuzzy equities of that exchange. Perhaps something was lost in the translation.
Weeks following the event, I noticed a bit of a thaw in the discussions on the FdR group on LinkedIn. I posted a request seeking information on White Truffles because someone from New York had asked me. I received a few responses which promised a follow up, but it inexplicably stopped there. Then a day or two later a discussion was posted by a fellow FdR member, a member that had responded to my question, first apologizing for his posting but then asking a whether someone was interested in some vacating commercial space belonging to his client. Within hours, we had Osvaldo affirming that that posting was okay and within a day or so we had another FdR member asking for information about the space. Now this is the purpose of networking! Tangible, concise, direct and easy.
It is not for me to make any judgment about which style of networking is better. It is for each of us to decide what works for them. It is however my wish that everyone gets something they want out of networking.
