The goal of Bloggers Corner is to provide a place for technology-interested people to pose and discuss ideas of interest to the community at large.
Some history: In 2010, Miles Prescott, Managing Director of SMB Research LLC, conducted a survey of the CCTC community. Some interesting ideas were uncovered and discussed. The survey results are posted on the CCTC website for your convenience.
One immediate action item came from those finding; i.e. networking was one of the key points of interest to the members. Networking comes in many forms and formats. One idea was to build a blogging community around this idea. The topics, content and “Master Blogger” would come from the CCTC community in general and support a place to air ideas and discuss problems of interest.
H4 test
I will be the “Master Blogger” for the month of April and NETWORKING will be the topic of choice. My plan is to post a blog each Monday of April and then monitor, cajole and mediate any discussions that flow from the posting.
My Second mission is to recruit the “Master Blogger” for May. Do you have an idea, a problem or a topic that you would like to be the subject of a month long discussion. If you do, contact me at consultant23@yahoo.com and we can discuss your interest and your topic and its relevance to the CCTC community in general.
The topic that I want to focus April on is:
NETWORKING on Cape Cod
During the month of April, some of the questions posed will be…
- Is NETWORKING necessary for the survival of your business?
- How to do it? good, better, best practices.
- What venue’s?
- How can CCTC help you in networking?
- How do you use technology in your NETWORKING?
Let’s start:
I am in the Financial Planning business and NETWORKING is key to my success. I spent 35 years in Information Technology in New England and NETWORKING was always a critical element for my success. The mode of NETWORKING that I am most familiar with is “face to face” meetings. I have attended way too many of the “rubber chicken” lunches and dinners. The object of the attendance was to become a recognized entity, get introduced to people and to find ways to better connect with my peers.
The way that I found to be the most effective was to become active and provide value to the organization. I got to know people by working with them on some common task, i.e. a fundraiser, an educational meeting, an event, etc. From a work perspective, this allowed me to reach out to a large collection of people whom I could trust their judgment and forthrightness. I could question and discuss technologies, vendors and systems solutions with my peers and expect honest answers.
This process, although personally very rewarding, is long and slow.
Fast forward to 2011, Cape Cod, Linked-in, Facebook and Twitter.
- How does that enable, change, alter, replace or define the new “face to face” meetings?
- What are your experiences and how do you do it now?
- Where do you turn to improve your NETWORKING skills?
- What are some of your sources to improve your NETWORKING as you are practicing it?
I am looking for two things:
- MOST IMPORTANT: Your comments and involvement
- ALMOST AS IMPORTANT: a volunteer to be next month’s Master Blogger for Cape Cod Technology Council’s Bloggers Corner