It may well be a terrible thing to admit, but sometimes I struggle at times with the “networking thing”. When I’ve gone to specific business related events and done the mix and mingle, I’ve found some people get into a networking modus operandi that looks and sounds contrived and can be totally off-putting. That’s the difficulty with networking -it is the thing to do (good business practice, all the books say so) yet how do you do it so that it isn’t a fast card exchange and nothing more? My preference is to take an approach right at the beginning that genuinely focuses on people, involves sharing of information or resources (where relevant) and aims to build sound relationships, over time. I like the slow and steady approach and detest the hit and run model which may well put me out of step with the rest of the world. Oh well……so be it.