Thursday, November 13, 2008

On Networking and Match-Making (job/skills, that is) -- Thoughts from the Nov Marketing SIG event

Every time I do the meeting introduction at the beginning of the Marketing SIG, I always like to give a quick overview of the SIG for the audience -- for the first time attendees as well as others. Here are 2 key goals for the SIG:

1) To provide a learning experience that’s useful and practical that is worth spending an evening for; and knowledge that people can apply at work the next day; and
2) Equally important, is to provide networking opportunity for the community to build and maintain professional relationships which is a critical career survival skill in any economy

I’m coming to the conclusion that networking is well-understood and well-practiced in Silicon Valley. I’m always enlightened when I meet people from all over the world at the SIG. This time, it’s a pleasure to meet Etan from NYC, and Marie from Spain, who are here to set up new sites for their startups. They have been here for only a matter of days or weeks, but they’ve found SDForum, and made their way to Marketing SIG!

And speaking of networking, our quick, informal survey indicated that in the room we have roughly about the same number of people hiring as people who are job searching. I hope good matches were identified. But it also got me thinking: can the SIG provide a more “robust” system to do better? Any volunteers?

Lastly, many thanks to Athol Foden, president of Brighter Naming, http://brighternaming.com/ , to come and shared his vast knowledge on naming and trademarks. Very interesting topic, and one that requires as much process, analytical, and linguistics skills as it also provokes emotions. Feedback from the audience encourages us to plan a part 2 for the topic. So stay tuned… Many thanks also to Jep Castelein for volunteering a case study for the naming exercise. So after the discussion, did he like “Axometric”? Did he, did he?

Join us in the Dec 8 Marketing SIG – Surviving the Storm – smart use of your limited marketing budget in tough times

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