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Post-Conference Productivity
May 6th, 2008 by StephenPosted in GTD, Productivity |
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I have just returned to my desk from the amazing SOBCon 2008. What a great group of people. The trust and friendship I felt after meeting all of these bloggers was incredible. I would be glad to invite any of them into my home.
One downside to meeting a big group (about 100!) of people that you really want to keep in touch with is collecting a bunch of business cards.
I am working on entering all of this contact information into my HighriseHQ account. How long does it take to enter 100 business cards into your Relationship Manager? The short answer is a long time!
Investing in your new contacts
The long answer is not too long, if you do a little bit at a time. This is a classic case of breaking a big job up into smaller parts. I have decided to enter some of these cards every morning, 6 at a time. This gives me a chance to:
- Make a detailed entry about how I met each person,
- What we talked about,
- And what might be coming next.
- I also invest a little time in looking at their blog or website. This gives me a better insight into what they do and how we can collaborate or communicate in the future.
The next thing that I do is look for them on Twitter, my new best friend! This gives me a chance to see what they are up to, and send quick notes if I see something that they may be interested in. I have just started using Twitter, and I see some very interesting possibilities. (Let me know what you do with Twitter in the Comments.)
When each entry is complete, I reward myself by checking the Twitter feed to get up to date. I get to accomplish two tasks at once, 1) entering the contact information and 2) keeping in touch.
This task may take just over a week or so, but I will have a chance to get closer to these awesome people that I met fairly briefly and develop a deeper and more meaningful relationship. Liz Strauss has imprinted her philosophy of “Head, Heart, and Meaning” upon me, and I intend to live up to it.
If you found this post useful, please share it with your friends on Twitter using the tinylink http://tinyurl.com/5d82pl. Thanks, I appreciate it! Feel free to comment below, I enjoy discussing these ideas. ~@Stephen
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May 6th, 2008 at 10:56 am
Approaching a rate of 100s of cards per conference, have you considered buying a special business card scanner? :-)
May 6th, 2008 at 11:13 am
Yes, I need to look into if it can interface with HRHQ and then I still need to enter meeting info and context. So it may not save too much time.
May 6th, 2008 at 12:23 pm
Fine strategy, Stephen! The hardest part of a relationship is often starting it. I ought to use Twitter more like you do. :)
May 6th, 2008 at 12:38 pm
>Easton I am going to be using Twitter in Conjunction with Utterz to put together some innovative little communications. I need to check with my new friend Sim and see if there are some thought-leaders that I can learn from. Let me know if you are interested in finding out more, or getting involved…
May 6th, 2008 at 2:39 pm
Great meeting you, too! Even though my card is conspicuously NOT on the top of this stack.
Am curious about your Twitter/Utterz hybrid. Of course, you’re a responsible sort (unlike me), so you’ll keep us posted. But just in case…keep us posted, okay?
May 6th, 2008 at 2:50 pm
Thank you, Stephen! It was such a pleasure to keep seeing you everywhere. We got so much time. I value that. :)
May 6th, 2008 at 3:18 pm
>Communicatrix: Your card is in a special place, i.e. in my wallet for the next trip to the printers! That is the best design. Sonia’s is the most powerful, if you have the cojones to put that cartoon on the back!
>Liz: Thank you for putting up with me, and for your awesome advice on how to update my homepage. Check out the new & improved http://www.incontextmultimedia.com!
May 6th, 2008 at 6:02 pm
So my card’s neither on the top of the pile nor in your wallet, eh? Wasn’t it soft enough?
I must say that my CardScan served me well–I got all the cards entered into Outlook in under 20 minutes…of course, responding to folks has taken considerably longer.
It was great meeting you, Stephen!
May 6th, 2008 at 6:26 pm
>Jared, always pushing the buttons, eh? Your card is nice too. Is that what you wanted to hear? ;)
May 7th, 2008 at 3:55 pm
I have a tendency to look at a series of small tasks as a BIG and insurmountable task, so 6 cards at a time is a nice way to reframe it.
I’m trying to figure out the best way to manage my contacts and keep paper under control in my office. The idea of scanning the cards so I have them electronically but can throw away the cards themselves (sorry, folks!) is very appealing. Hmm… If only I’d taken that free copy of SkyMall when I had the chance… :)
Thanks for the ideas!
kk
May 7th, 2008 at 10:03 pm
Great to meet you while I was in Chicago for my Board of Director’s meeting. Sorry to take so long to get around to reviewing your blog. Outstanding stuff here. Looks as though you are on the right track..people need to know this stuff.
Keep in touch and I will be back to check in on you from time to time.
May 8th, 2008 at 7:04 am
Thanks for coming by Scot, there are going to be some incremental changes here that will make it easier for folks to find what they are looking for. Stay tuned!
May 10th, 2008 at 3:01 pm
Really great advice. If you take the time to create relationships at an event like this, it’s important to nurture them and allow them to organically grow to whatever they need to become.
Thanks for lunch on Saturday. Wish we had more time to chat - really. Love to pick up the phone sometime soon and keep the conversation rolling.
May 12th, 2008 at 7:14 am
Thanks Dawud, I will take you up on that. I am on the road a lot this week, I will send you an e-mail.
May 12th, 2008 at 9:16 pm
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