From Workout to Last Call

This a book about trade shows and conferences, and how to leverage them for your company and yourself. The first half is about organizing a presence at the event – this didn’t apply to me at all.

The second half, however, is about networking at an event, and there’s some good advice here. I’ve attended a lot of conferences, so I can’t say I learned anything Earth-shaking, but if you’re new to the conference circuit, this is a helpful guide.

It talks about network in both a macro and micro sense. Macro in terms of how “social capital” is helpful, and very, very micro – he has advice for how to enter a conversation with a group people, how to extract yourself from such a conversation, how to position yourself at the hotel bar to maximize your chance to talk to people, what notes to tale, how to follow up with people, etc.

(I remember some similar advice from a sales book that had the word “rainmaker” in its title. I went looking for it, to provide a link, but it’s been 20 years and it turns out a lot of books about sales have that word in the title.)

The book intoduced me to the term proxemics. Turns out there’s a whole field of study around how humans use and think about their personal space.

It’s a very practical guide. For the right person, this would be genuinely helpful.

(I did take away one really good tip: when you get your nametag lanyard, tie a knot in it so it rides higher on your torso. That’s a handy one.)

Book Info