Has Business School Taught me Nothing?

In college there may or may not have been a heavy emphasis on the word networking. Being in business school, I might have heard a few lectures surrounding the topic, all of which until recently, I had filed away under “things you learn in college but are not really applicable”. Subjects such as geometry and earth science can be filed there; I mean who really cares all that much about sedimentary rocks or what temperature lava boils?

So I’m sure you can imagine my shock and horror when I found myself going to the Massachusetts Conference for Women without a business card tucked ever so neatly in my handbag. What’s that I hear? The grasp heard around the world?! She went to a professional conference without business cards?!

YES! So shoot me!

Well here’s what happened– the night before I found myself walking all over the streets of Boston, boyfriend in toe, trying to find a 24 hour Fedex Office. I thought that if I could throw something together, I could at least pretend to be professional at this thing.  Unfortunately, Fedex Office needs at least 2-4 days to print business cards, so again I saw no salvation to my dilemma.

Whelp ladies and gentlemen much like everything written in the blog, there is a lesson here.

1. Always do your homework before going to a professional event.
2. Someone invented Vistaprint for a reason, USE it!
3. Don’t stress yourself out too much!
4. Be clear on what you want to get out of the event
5. Follow-up!!!

For those of you who are wondering, I ended up having a great time at the conference. I chose not to stress about my lack of business cards, but rather focus on meeting new people, having conversations and asking for their cards! It ended up being a great conference, and I learned a lot about myself and networking. Below is a link to the conference, if you are in the Boston area, make sure to check it out: http://www.maconferenceforwomen.org/