Hi Meredith. I'm a Trainer and Coach.

I agree, networking is so vital to business professionals. It's also good on a social basis as sometimes you make a good friend. Aside from being the place to meet potential clients, networking is actually a great opportunity to a) get to know (and hopefully keep in touch with) those who are in your target market's circle of influence an b) meet a mentor.

I've been to events where I have met good friends for life from completely different industries altogether, yet we have come up with a way of being each other's mentors and friends and we then share our list of contacts with each from graphics designer to suppliers. We also pass on emails we know will be of benefit to each other in our lines of work or even our personal lives. Now this has been very worth my while and the bonus is I've made great friends.

On the flip side, I have been to events where many women go with the aim of just meeting a new customer - yes it's true for us all but there is no desire amongst the majority to want to build genuine, sincere rapport and keep in touch if 1 person shows no interest in purchasing the services / goods of the other. Heaven forbid those who are in the same industry who bump into each other, I find people tend to run in the opposite direction when they meet their competitor - sometimes us women in the same industry could actually support each other, become each other's mentors or put each other in contact with that "right" person. We should sometimes be each others motivators, and not always each other's competitors. (I have written a blog on this not yet published!)