Networking is often thought as a ‘pre or post’ by-product of attending a PMI dinner, lecture, or a business meeting. Often we skip the networking portion because we are in a hurry to get home. Instead it is important to be able to dedicate the time to improve our professional relationships, learn from our PM peers project experiences (both good and bad), and discover if there are new techniques that could be applied to your own projects.
Here are some networking action items:
1: Connect with other project managers in LinkedIn forums
There are several great forums to read or join a discussion. New topics are posted almost hourly and contain the latest PM trends and tool suggestions, project advice and more. To get you started follow these popular groups:
- PMI Project, Program and Portfolio Management
- The Project Manager Network – #1 Group for Project Managers
- Project Manager Community – Best Group for Project Management
- Project Management Professionals PMP
2: Twitter
Search and connect with PM’s by looking for these hashtags and follow the handles whose tweets best interest you:
- #projectmanagement
- #PMI
- #PMOT (Project Managers On Twitter)
- #PMChat.
3: Attend a local PMI event or conference
While online social networking is practical and useful, it cannot substitute for meeting in person. Join, attend, or volunteer with your local PMI chapter. My chapter holds formal meeting at least once a month. If you do not have a local chapter consider attending a national or regional conference. If you have established solid online connections, via LinkedIn or Twitter, it may provide an opportunity to meet and collaborate with those connections at a conference.