- Open body language – your physical stance and posture can be welcoming, or at the other scale very confronting for others. Have an open stance when standing, and slightly leaning forward to show interest when seated. Your opportunity here is to make the other person/people as comfortable as possible, and perhaps indicating to others that you would welcome them joining the conversation. Engaging eye contact and facial expressions are well received, but avoid the long stares.

- Verbal – you should aim for open questions, where you allow the respondent to be creative and tell you their story. If you give people an opportunity to open up, you can quickly get to know a lot about them, their challanges and indeed opportunities. Try not to be overbearing, and aim for a balance with your communication. as they most likely also want to get to know you. Stay agile and responsive, and don’t stick to your original line of questioning if they take you down another path. A good networker will often have people in mind they would like to meet – ensure that you’re well researched, so you’re in a position to drop a few lines about their latest press releases or relevant information.

eg I note that your organisation has just merged with another, and I assume that you have large integration issues to deal with ….

Just give them something to open up about.

Your elevator pitch is designed to convey what value you and your organisation can bring to others. It’s not something that you would start a conversation with, but if someone asks you, are you ready to respond? My big tip is to focus on the value you bring, and not the services you provide. make it meaningul, and where possible highlight examples where you may have helped others in a similar sector. If you tailor it to your audience, it will be better received than a generic response.

At last a common sense approach to effective networking and I am sure that delegates will be interested in hearing your sessions at Queensland and South Australia. Particularly those that have been thrust into networking without any guidance from the employers.

I would endorse your comments on networking, very rarely is it an opportunity to sell and those that do try and sell tend to have a short term and fruitless relationship on their hands. Far better to ask questions and enquire about the individual and organisation, to establish if you can build a long term fruitful relationship with win:win in mind.

Do you have any suggestions on ‘how to deliver’ your message,i.e. body language, voice tone and word phrases that successful networks use? How useful is an elevator speech and what message should it convey?

- showing a genuine interest in the person/people you’re speaking with, and therefore made an investment of time in
- engaging with them on balanced basis, and ask them open questions about their organisation or situation
- think about how you can help them, including through connecting them with others in your network, and relevant research or infomration that could be useful

If you feel like you’re being harassed by a poor networker at an event, politely excuse yourself from the conversation and move on. Remember, your time is an investment.