3 Ways to Break the Ice at Holiday Networking Events

 

Holiday season is upon us which means you’ll likely be attending a lot of events.
Not just your family events, but events at your job and any associations you may be a part of.

While advancing your career may not be the point of these events, they do present the perfect opportunity to get a little networking in. Simply put, no one is expecting you to vie for a job at a holiday party like you would at more professional events.

Holiday parties also typically aren’t forced social situations which is what can make more professional networking events so uncomfortable.

Use our tips below to break the ice at holiday parties so you can get some networking done and grow your list of contacts.

 

1. Find the person standing alone.

A tactic I use is to strike up a conversation with someone else that looks alone at the event. I literally walk up to those people, introduce myself and say, “I hate standing alone at these events, and assume others prefer to not stand alone either, so I figured we can chat!” and then go into some openers.

Some examples of openers include:

• What brought them here?
• Do they know anyone? How did they meet?
• What are they working on that maybe they were hoping to find some resources
at the event to move their project along?

They key here is to gently ask good questions that will get them talking. Chances are the other person will appreciate that you’re including them, and as a result be more willing to open up and have a conversation.

 

2. Come from a place of service.

There is nothing more irritating than someone at a networking event who immediately starts pitching themselves upon meeting someone.

Rather than going to the networking event thinking about how many people you need to talk to, how many business cards you need to collect or what deal you need to close, consider going with the intention of being helpful to someone else. Even setting out to help just one person can be more effective than handing out business cards.

Get in the spirit of the holidays and attend these events with service in mind. It takes the pressure of “networking” off of you and can open the doors to building relationships that may very well lead to opportunity later on.

 

3. Take advantage of the holiday small talk.

The holidays present us with a ton of conversation starters that we can’t call upon the rest of the year. According to Debra Fine, author of The Fine Art of Small Talk, you can ask questions like “What are some your family holiday traditions?” or “What is your favorite thing about the holiday season? Why?”

This opens the door for conversation instead of forcing one to occur. Eventually the conversation will lead to everyone’s favorite small talk question “So, what do you do?” This is when you can bring up career goals or the fact that you are looking for a job.

The point is to use this time of year to let a conversation about your career come up naturally. You can find a list of holiday related conversation starters here.