Business Networking In Action
As part of our preparations for the next vBusiness Expo I’ve been spending a little time tying up loose ends from the last one we held in OLIVE during the summer of ’08. As I went through old screenshots I saw the crowds of people, panels, presenters, etc.
It was these three images, however, that stood out from the rest:
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This was taken on the second day just after a session. A few of us ended up gathered at the bottom of a staircase and had one of the best conversations about the future applications of virtual spaces I’ve ever been a part of. My avatar is the one without a nametag, but it sure is nice that OLIVE allows us to use our real names. Thanks to R Davies, Eilif Trondsen, Michael Cohen, Dan Gillette, Anders Gronstedt, Stephen Wright, and Steve Mahaley for a mind-expanding time that day. |
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Here’s another impromptu meet after a session. Robert Gehorsam, President of Forterra Systems, is out in the lobby here fielding a number of questions about where the company is going and what OLIVE is capable of doing. |
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I was actually running an errand at the end of the day when I happened to run into this fellow here on the stairs. As it turned out he had really needed to get in touch with us all day but just didn’t quite have the opportunity, so he flagged me down as I passed and we caught up. |
Our guests want two things from our expos:
- Learn something useful.
- Network with like-minded businesspeople.
The presentations speak for themselves: high on case studies and how-tos, low on opinions and advertorials. The pictures above, however, really answer the need for business networking. Without even really building “discussion areas”, these side conversations and connections were being made throughout the entire expo.
All of it without an ounce of jet fuel.