Networking Numpties' No-No in The City

Despite networking being even more essential to the lifeblood of business because of the recession, there are still some people who hamper their own professional and personal opportunities. This is down to their ignorance and, in this particular case, an additional arrogance.

I was at an event in the Square Mile the other day with people from the financial industry. My name badge had my name on it and the first two words of the three word title of one of my businesses, namely Broad Grin (Communications).

Two people gauchely invited me into a conversation that had been awash with awkwardness and politely political business chat. Then one of them, looking at my name badge quizzically, remarked that he hadn't heard of the Broad Grin finance house. "I'm not surprised by that," I said, "as it's a video communications agency and my company is filming this event."

The falsely earnest smiles quickly disappeared and it became rudely obvious that they just weren't interested in me as I wasn't someone they thought could be useful to them as I wasn't in finance.

But you never know who the other person, like me, might know.

In this case, the second person, a woman, works for a major bank. And if she had bothered to get to know me at all she would have found out that I know someone very senior within her bank who could have been of great use to her - the sort of person she was dying to meet that night. But that will never happen now...because she is, like her equally charmless companion, a Networking Numpty!