Networking is one of the most important things that you can do to grow your business and improve yourself professionally. Although today’s networking takes place primarily online, there are a lot of places where you can go to meet business contacts in person.

Examples of places where you might make new business contacts include:

• Conferences. Business associates have been connecting with each other at industry conferences and conventions for a long time and it’s still one of the best places to meet people.
• Ongoing education classes. Stay on top of your industry while meeting other people who are also on top of the game.
• Meetups, Tweetups, etc. There are a lot of online platforms where you can connect with people and then meet in real life at organized networking events.
• Singles professionals nights. If you want to mix business with pleasure than singles mixers are a good palce to start.

Those are just the basics. You can meet people in airplanes, office supply stores and random events as well.

Where do you go to meet new people in your field?

Tags: associates, business, contacts, Friends, kathryn vercillo, meet people, networking

March means springtime and springtime means all kinds of different parties, doesn’t it? I don’t get the chance to go to too many baby showers but I did have the opportunity to do some research into them this morning. Specifically I got the chance to write about baby shower games.

What I love most about my women friends is how creative they all are. We have a lot of fun together because everyone in our group has great ideas. And yet we’re collaborative so we work together to make those ideas happen in a non-competitive way.

Baby shower games are an example of this. Of course, the hostess of the baby shower is the one who picks the games that are going to be played but the women who participate have to add their own creativity and sense of fun to the experience for everyone to have a good time.

Whether you’re pinning the pacifier on the baby, passing the dirty diaper or turning baby food into delicious adult treats, you’re probably having fun at a baby shower. Games aren’t all that a baby shower is about, of course, but they sure do make the baby shower fun.

Tags: baby shower, creativity, Friends, fun, games, Parenting, parties, party games, party planning, play, pregnancy, social life, women