Business Editor's Notebook: Time to break out the business cards and meet people again
May 16—GUESTS at a recent Boys & Girls Club event were invited to celebrate the completion of the Edward S. Wolak Clubhouse Annex, an expansion that gives the Manchester nonprofit room to serve more kids.
The small crowd huddled outside the Union Street building included a lot of familiar faces, including political leaders, business owners and benefactors, such as the namesake of the new addition, a former club kid who operates more than 100 Dunkin' shops.
Everyone had good reason to attend the function, but you got the idea from mixing with the crowd that they were glad to be anywhere at all — meeting with people in person again after more than a year of Zoom events.
While most people were wearing masks, a few went without. People exchanged information on their vaccines, agreeing to shake hands if they had both shots. Club CEO Diane Fitzpatrick made the rounds, hugging longtime donors.
It's a scene we can expect to become more frequent in the months ahead as the COVID-19 pandemic begins to lose its stifling grip on social connection.
The Greater Manchester Chamber's Citizen of the Year event in July will be a hybrid affair, with nearly 200 spots for in-person attendants, including honoree Anna Thomas, the city's public health director, her family, and sponsors.
It's the kind of event that traditionally includes lots of networking. Remember that box of business cards that has been gathering dust in a drawer since March 2020? Time to stuff some of those in your wallet or purse.
"The awkward art of networking is coming back," says Heather McGrail, director of memberships and community partnerships for the Greater Manchester Chamber.
The chamber offers training on networking, the kind of soft skill that can make or break a business meeting.
"It's a science and an art at the same time. How do you exit a conversation? Stop talking about what you do and tell them why you do it," she said during a recent interview at the chamber.
She was joined by Lauren Getts, the chamber's director of marketing and communications. We were meeting at the chamber offices on Hanover Street in a newly remodeled room designed for member collaboration that has largely sat idle these many months because of the pandemic.
During that period, the chamber has presented numerous virtual events that have fostered more collaboration than traditional in-person meetings usually generate, McGrail and Getts say.
People go to in-person events, make introductions and often don't ever connect again.
"The value of that is the follow-ups. The majority of people don't do it," McGrail said. "They get all those business cards, and they might have met great people who would be connections. They don't reach out to follow up."
While video might seem less personal, more work gets done.
"Now, because it's virtual, and it's easier to schedule a Zoom, and people have become deconditioned to networking events, there's more follow-up as well, from what members are telling me," McGrail said. "Overall, it's creating more collaboration and meaningful exchange even though we are not in person. So there's less fluff and more meaning."
Now that in-person events are returning, McGrail and Getts offers some simple advice: Talk less. Listen more.
"People get in their heads and they think, 'What do I say next? What do I say next?' I do that," Getts said. "It's hard to remind yourself to just be in the moment and have that conversation and listen."
McGrail — who Getts insists is the more outgoing of the two — agreed.
"That's one of the pitfalls. We always tell people, it's more important to act interested than be interesting," McGrail said.
Here's another sign we know in-person networking is coming back — that commercial we keep hearing on a local radio station plugging a 24-hour solution for keeping your breath fresh.
Something we haven't had to worry about during those endless Zoom calls.
Mike Cote is senior editor for news and business. Contact him at mcote@unionleader.com or (603) 206-7724.
