Going to Chicago

On networking, trade shows, co-opetition...and Chicago in May.

- Article originally published at Fohboh.com

If networking is about wearing a nice shirt, keeping secrets, pushing a business card and hard selling, it gets tired pretty fast. And in a connected world, it’s unsustainable, because reputation matters more than ever.

“We no longer care what you say. We care a great deal about what you do…If you network to get, and not to give…. Then we already know who you are” - from Seth Godin’s “What you say , what you do, and who you are.”

Challenging words.

There are always proprietary limits, but now we’re exploring them, networking with several different competitors, in groups like Fohboh, over the phone, in web seminars, and in person. It used to be that bounding your problem solving to your limited organization, some trade publications and a handful of consultants was a complete enough approach. But in a wired world, putting up walls on the problem in this way is not only unnecessarily - it’s a dangerously narrow approach.

Co-opetition is the future, in my opinion. On May 16-19, we’ll be at the NRA, in Chicago. Will people be there to sell? Sure, but selling is a byproduct. We’ll all be there to work on creating new value. See you there.