You may think it’s ironic that two people that abhor networking started a networking event. But if you pause for one moment, you’ll realize that BASHH is designed completely for people (like us) that feel that pit in their stomach when they walk into a room full of people armed with “so what do YOU do?” as their only question before non-consensual business card swapping.
Sidenote: We worked hard to create ridiculous AI art to embody the awkward nature of networking events. A visual representation for folks who otherwise don’t feel put off by interacting with strangers… Don’t look too closely at it, you’ll start to FEEL things…
We’ve worked hard for 16 years to make our event extremely approachable, where that question may come up, and someone might ask about the weather, but the casual nature of the setting and all of the prep materials we include in ticketing force the focus on our commonalities, our humanity.
I can tell you about peoples’ kids, their first jobs, what conspiracies they think are fun to follow, what they wanted to be when they grew up, and after that, sometimes I know what they do for a living. Because there’s more to each of us than our job title.
So if you hate networking, I have two tips for you that are easy peasy:
- Start small. Set a goal for yourself before entering BASHH that you’ll meet a certain number of new people. I usually shoot for three because it forces me to not sit at the same table the entire time (which is my preference), and I have a built in excuse when I’m ready to eject from a conversation (“I have challenged myself to meet three new people tonight, so I’d better go get that done, nice chatting with ya!”).
- Pull someone’s cord. People remember less about what you said and more about how you made them feel. My favorite trick for this is to ask people questions that get *them* talking instead of me (because let’s be honest, I get nervous and just start yapping). Ask casual things like what their attitude towards AI art is, or how has the industry changed since they first started, or what they think of a recent news story. Get them talking. It takes the pressure off of you, but also makes them feel special. They call it active listening, I call it pulling someone’s cord so they’ll talk and I can just chill and listen and engage, putting focus on them.
We’d love to see you at the next BASHH on May 21st at The Brewtorium in Austin, where you can test out these two quick tips:
