Walking in grooved paths begets homogeny

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Photo owned by Funkman (cc)

Adrian tweeted something interesting in the last week:

Bizcamps are grand, but starting to get the feeling that some folks spend all their time going to *camps and not actually creating anything

It’s not necessarily the comment about creation I’m interested in, that’s something for another post. And there will be one. Rather the same old faces quip.

I’m noticing it more and more. I organised Tweetups in the past and they all rocked. It was great to get people together. Hopefully, the building blocks of friendships were carved out and names-faces matching went into overdrive. That’s a good thing. Meeting someone in the flesh gives context to words splattered on a screen.

Patrick Bateman wants to meet yew!

More and more I’ve noticed that there’s a feeling of out-and-out one-dimensional networking going on. Not the “let’s swap ideas and maybe do business” or the “wow, that’s you” – more that scene from American Psycho. You know the card-swapping one?

Thinking aloud here – but that kind of networking feels greasy to me. Are we bags of meat all queued up? I may be 100% wrong here, but I kinda hope there’s a grain of authenticity in conversations.

Networking is great. Meeting people for the first time is fantastic. Putting your assumptions to the test when meeting someone for the first time is fun too. “I thought you’d be shorter”. Et cetera, et cetera.

Maybe Ireland is just too small, making the roll of attendees to events sometimes look incestuous. Meets in the UK attract different crowds – Flickrers, Twitterers and Bloggers. Some events attract all three, but the diet of attendees is much more varied. Add blowin attendees on short-trips doing business too. Faces are more likely to change in a city with more events on simultaneously and more outside blood, right?

Where to go?

Perhaps, the pro-networkers have indeed inherited the Earth. Just for now. Bloggers getting together to talk blogging or Twitterers to talk Twittering, really isn’t compelling anymore. What’s new here? We understand the medium, the conventions, the flow and social dings. There’s nothing new here, other than a little ego basting. Eating our own shit really isn’t interesting.

There’s no real solution I can give. I have the pointy foam finger. I would like to see less cheap-suited and booted sorts. Couldn’t they just wear jeans and relax a little? Learn a little from their fellow Man? Maybe listen instead of talk?

I’m doing my bit and going to stop going to so many events unless they challenge me or I have something to Show and Tell. Meeting for meetings sake is cold and vaccous. In the meantime, I’ll be building out my friendships. Meaningful things.

March 17th, 2009 at 8:09 pm • Filed in Blogging, Geekery



Comments

13 Comments to “Walking in grooved paths begets homogeny”

  1. Tommy Collison Says:
    March 17th, 2009 at 9:18 pm

    +1

    Too many meetups are just chewing the cud. They should bring something new to the table and we should learn something.



  2. Pat Phelan Says:
    March 17th, 2009 at 9:51 pm

    Great/Great post
    totally ahead of the curve
    The year before last I went to every event I could to build/foster relationships on a global scale.
    This year I went to one event (free ticket) and have turned down minimum 25.
    I cant see the value anymore,the blowjob circuit has lost its appeal for me.
    I will do a few events this year but I’m a CEO, my job its to sell my business, these events dont help my business they help me as Pat Phelan.
    Does this mean I will stop talking to entrepreneurs?
    Certainly not, it means I will have more time to talk to them it just wont be face to face.



  3. Piaras Kelly Says:
    March 17th, 2009 at 9:58 pm

    Totally agree. TBH this has been coming a long time. I remember organising TechCamp with Ed Byrne almost five years ago at this stage before BarCamp even kicked off here. We quickly killed it off when we realised shortly afterwards after each of us attended some other events that there was lots of talking and not so much doing. There’s still good events out there, but like you said it’s the meaningful things that matter. I’ve also tried to diversify in terms of the events I attend like the IIEA’s Young Professionals Network which offers a completely different crowd to the usual people you’ll meet (not that the web 2.0 crowd isn’t interesting)



  4. Campbell Scott Says:
    March 18th, 2009 at 8:27 am

    I agree with much of this Alexia, especially about the authenticity.

    But you kicked this off with the reference to Bizcamp – not sure if you made it to Bizcamp, but the refreshing thing about it was there were loads of new faces. Yes the tech’ community and bloggers were there in force, but I’d guess more than half of those there had never heard of Barcamps or Tweetups.

    Of course there are loads of networkig events and it’s impossible to attend them all and have a life (never mind run a business), but that’s why an event with new focus, attracting new people seems like a great idea. I’m not sure how much business was done on the day, but the reviews I’ve read were from happy “campers”. What I loved about the day was the optimism – and we just don’t seem to see too much of that around.



  5. Alexia Says:
    March 18th, 2009 at 9:02 am

    Campbell, this has nothing to do with Bizcamp. I didn’t make it there, so how could I comment on it? I’m sure loads of people made useful contacts. Read the piece again and see if it references Bizcamp other than the quote.



  6. keith bohanna Says:
    March 18th, 2009 at 9:21 am

    I agree with Lex and Adrian and Pat. Incessant networking for the sake of it is tedious.

    However meeting fellow entrepreneurs for support and encouragement and to listen and be listened to is a vital part of the infrastructure that enables new businesses. I am fortunate to live a couple of hours away from any large urban land mass and so the constraint of time means I have to be selective in the events I go to.

    Because of that I miss a lot. It does mean that I also stay at the point on the curve where every event means catching up with a handful of people whom I only know by their online presence and another handful whom I have never heard of. Each event brings me in contact with great entrepreneurs doing amazing things.

    That is the point for me. And if it was easier or the events nearer I am sure I would overindulge as well :-)

    keith



  7. Campbell Scott Says:
    March 18th, 2009 at 12:59 pm

    No worries, but it started with the quote. Maybe it’s Adrian I should comment to. I’ve no problem with the excessive networking events (coz you can pick and choose), but your point about the authenticity of the conversation is much more important and I agree completely.



  8. Alexia Says:
    March 18th, 2009 at 6:34 pm

    No bother. I think, though as there’s only been one Bizcamp it would be unfair to pin trends. I don’t think Bizcamp was really the target here. More speaking in generics i.e. the ecosystem.



  9. Niall Harbison Says:
    March 21st, 2009 at 11:39 am

    Yeah I agree with this 100%. I think it is cool to go to about 1 conference a week but my time is much better spent doing other stuff like creating content. I think the problem is that Ireland is just way too small and you’ll always end up seeing the same faces no matter what.



  10. Biz Camp Limerick Says:
    March 22nd, 2009 at 10:48 am

    [...] am on a kind of self imposed hiatus on events at the moment, nothing wrong with the events but work calls first and I am examining the ROI per event on lost time versus [...]



  11. Rick Says:
    March 22nd, 2009 at 11:15 am

    I’m not a businessperson (my plans to take over the world with Culch.ie aside!!) but I find things are still interesting and new for me whenever I attend something like Twestival or the Blog Awards or Mulley’s Collision Course and that’s probably just because I go to relatively few.

    For me the meeting of new faces or the finally getting to shake hands with and chat nonsense to people I read or watch or tweet at is the really exciting thing.

    I can very easily see how it would become “the blogjob circuit” as Pat has so succinctly put it. I did write that as “blowjob” but my brain short-circuited me so I think I’ll leave it just as it is…

    :-)



  12. Ann Donnelly Says:
    March 23rd, 2009 at 9:38 pm

    Good observations, Lexia. Maybe people are driven to doing so much organised networking because they are working in remote (or at least not so urban) areas. Being down in West Cork, and working on my own, makes it hard to make it to most things, and you feel a bit out of touch.

    Some of the time I find the power networkers a bit scary, so just keep my head down and work away at what I do. I find that through Twitter I do get to see who are the people with good ideas and who are the ones that are more just professional networkers. I admire the latter to a point as it doesn’t come natural to me (maybe just need to learn how to switch on networking mode), but hope to find a more balanced way of finding support, resources, business ideas and partnerships.



  13. Trust Tommy » LOLinks: Wednesday, March 18th Says:
    May 12th, 2009 at 1:19 am

    [...] has a good point about meetups these [...]



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