Top Tips for Networking & How to Succeed at MIPIM

For the first time this year, Mattinson Partnership travelled to Cannes in Southern France and represented ourselves at MIPIM. For those who don’t know, MIPIM is the world’s largest real estate & property convention. There are representatives from the across the built environment; and chances to meet architects, planners, consultants, asset managers, surveyors and land buyers. The four-day event has a truly global feel with 26,000 attendees from around the world, plus the countless more who come solely to network outside. This leads me to what I’d like to discuss – how to network!

Networking is a skill, a useful tool for almost any job or walk of life. Networking essentially means making new contacts, doing this allows for you to develop new business, gain potential new career paths for yourself, introduce yourself to other influencers and even make new friends. For some, it comes more naturally than others, but looking at it in my three simple ways will allow anyone to become a master!

Preparation

It blows my mind how many people go to events with the specific aim of networking, only to do no preparation. Getting a delegates list beforehand, contacting other attendees and setting the groundwork for why you want to meet them makes it so much easier and productive to actually do. For MIPIM, I had two goals: the first to meet some of my existing clients while they were all in one place, the second to meet new architecture practices in the UK & abroad so we can expand that area of our business. This meant I had arranged with clients to meet at certain locations and times throughout the time there. From this, I could then walk the floors and shake hands of prospective new clients. The sheer scale of MIPIM allowed me to find success over a period of days. My preparation led to immediate business with my existing clients and has allowed me to set the groundwork for building future architecture relationship over the coming months. Very Exciting!

Approaching

For some, the trickiest bit. Beyond the meetings set up you will often run into interesting people and ideas when at events – so how do you approach them? It takes two things. As part of your prep you will have worked out why you’re going to the event, I’ve explained my reasons for attending MIPIM above. Use this as the basis for your introduction – my case saw me approach practices explaining who Mattinson Partnership and I was (recruitment consultants), then why we were there (to expand our existing portfolio of architecture clients), then ask a question to see if there could be a fit (can you tell me more about yourselves and the work you do?). Approaching people is far easier when you know what you’re going to say! The second element is simply this: hold out your hand. If you do this it’s incredibly hard for someone to not shake it. Couple a firm handshake with a clear explanation as to why you’ve approached them and the networking comes easily!

Follow up

We often talk about the key to good networking being the follow up. Put simply, why bother making connections if you’re not going to do anything with them? My past week and following ones will see me follow up on both the reasons I went to MIPIM. This means reconnecting with the clients I already have and met out there and resource for the jobs they’ve given me. Beyond that it’s following up on the business cards gained, and calling and contacting clients I also didn’t get a chance to meet. My long-term aim is to win new architecture business for Mattinson Partnership so I can recruit top-shelf talent for some incredible new practices. Following up and making sure my contact with them lasts beyond that short meeting in sunny Cannes is what will allow me to achieve this.

To summarise, the above is no silver bullet to networking, but approach any event with the right mind-set following these three tips, and you’ll find your returns will increase significantly. Networking is about confidence – even if you’re going for a more personal reason (such as to garner further market knowledge from seminars), doing it with a smile on your face and ready to shake someone else’s hand can make all the difference. After all, you never know who you’re going to meet at these events! I had tremendous fun at MIPIM and made some really interesting connections; by following my own advice I’m now confident in achieving my aims and making MIPIM a success for myself and the company.

If you did or didn’t go to MIPIM but the above interests you, I’m always happy to catch up and discuss it in more depth. Please don’t hesitate to reach out to me on 02079602583 or frb@mattpart.com

I now head up the Planning & Architecture team after joining mid-2016. My background has always been in recruitment, learning my craft while working across a range of different sectors including FMCG Marketing and Employability & Skills. I have expertise in recruiting across the UK as well as internationally which is great fun as I love meeting a wide variety of different people. I work with some of the best companies and people in the industry – what more could I want? Well, a sausage dog – I don't have one...yet!