A Rant About My Nightmare Networking Experience

Just on the heels of my last post about networking I have to hop on here and tell you about one of the worse networking experiences I’ve had. Last night I attended my monthly Savor The Success networking mastermind. It is something I look forward to every month. Full of quality women with amazing character and good insight. Angela Jia Kim’s motto is “give, give, get” and she pours so much into this organization that I can’t imagine how she recovers each month.

Last night there was a panel of 3 social media experts discussing LinkedIn and Pinterest. What was great about this panel is that they gave such amazing insight into these two platforms. We all know a lot already about Facebook and Twitter… but not so much so about LinkedIn and Pinterest. The panel was amazing. Fortunately for me, I was in the third row, so I was near the action.

Unfortunately for me, there were two ladies in the row right in front of me that were whispering the ENTIRE time. They were so distracting to the ladies in my row. The speakers didn’t have microphones, the room was big, so we as attendees were already focusing majorly to make sure we didn’t miss even one golden nugget shared from the stage.

But these LADIES!!! It was so awful to be behind them.  At one point I leaned over and told them that their chatter was very disruptive to the rest of us. Etiquette when you’re out and about is such a reflection on your brand values. They must know better? AND… get this, one of the women actually works in branding! Just last week I even passed her information over to a friend needing her services. I’m trying not to judge and regret that decision but the constant chatter of two women in a silent environment where even the moderator had to call them out and request that they keep the chatter down has me rethinking things.

When you’re out networking please save the chatter for the mixer and as much as you love or loathe what’s being shared from the stage please remember that whispering and chatting is not only rude and unprofessional, but it just might turn some future business away from your doors.

Have you ever had a nightmare networking experience? What happened? How did you handle it? Share in the comments below:

-Beatrice