How to Plan a Career Networking Event

Getting relative strangers to start talking and making contacts is a skill that many of us do not possess. However, planning a career networking event for your school or professional organization can be beneficial to you and your fellow classmates or members. With a little forethought and some help from dedicated volunteers, you can plan a successful career networking event.

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Venue
• Catering
• Contact information
• Advertisement budget
• Volunteers

Bring Colleagues Together for a Networking Event

1. Determine a date that will be most convenient for participants. For example, if you are organizing an event for a professional organization, plan it to occur concurrently with your organization's regular meeting or conference. This will provide you with a larger audience and make for a better networking event.

2. Select a venue that is suitable for conversation. You should hold your event in a place where participants can be easily heard over background music, with plenty of casual seating areas to encourage conversations among your participants.

3. Prepare a list of companies to solicit representatives from. Since the goal of this event is to help people with career contacts, your contact list should include human-resources representatives as well as other individuals with the power to hire new employees.

4. Advertise your networking event at least a month before it occurs. Potential outlets include your organization's newsletter, email lists and a bulletin-board posting in your school's common area. With a slightly larger advertising budget, you could even print and send postcard invitations to your networking event.

5. Plan ahead and put together a goody bag with pens, pencils, paper and other items for the event's attendees. You may also wish to compose a contact sheet of everyone attending, so that those participating can easily get in touch with each other after the event is over.

6. Budget for a bar or other refreshments for your event, especially if it is scheduled for the evening. Generally, catered events will draw more attendees. The more attendees you can muster, the more likely your event will be a success.

Tips & Warnings

• Get businesses related to your field to donate stationery, pens and pencils with their logos on them for your event. This will provide your attendees with a convenient way to record their new contacts while also providing your corporate participants with a subtle way to advertise their businesses.