Unforunately our Marquette PRSSA group was unable to make it to this year's national conference in San Diego this month, so I did a little research to see what the conference entailed. I wanted to see what other students thought about the presentations they were invited to. I came across this blog posting by a senior student at Ohio Northern University:



10 Tips for Networking Etiquette



It describes some very detailed tips for networking, some that I hadn't even heard of before. In fact, they make a lot of sense. I found a couple especially interesting:

4. Ladies should extend their hand to gentlemen first, allowing them to control whether they are comfortable with the exchange.

This is a neat point because, as a lady, I never thought that men might be uncomfortable with shaking a woman's hand...or vice versa in a networking environment.

8. If the first to arrive at a table for dinner, wait behind your chair or mingle until everyone is present before sitting down.

This is a great observation, because you never want to appear as though you are unsocial (even if you are a bit uncomfortable with meeting new people). Networking events give you an easy way in to breaking your shell and getting your name out there, because everyone is expecting to talk with and meet many people. There's no pressure!