And what do you find in a high-tech community -- in addition to technology? Events. Lots of Events.

It's been difficult to keep up on the technology events in Southern California. Several Web sites have calendars of events in SoCal communities. However, not every event organizer lists their gathering on those sites

The Technology Council of Southern California and TechEmpower have created Southern California Tech Central, a new Web site that makes it much easier to keep up with the whole technology sector in Southern California.

Here's a page with posts about SoCal events http://cc.tcosc.org/event/.

Check out the Southern California Tech Central -- and keep up with the tech events Southern California.

Laurie Percival mentioned that while at the SXSW conference she used Contxts, a new SMS-based service that shares business card information with someone by just sending their mobile phone number to an SMS "short code."

There are many times when you don't have business cards to give to a new acquaintance. You might be at a conference and run out. Or, you might be at such a casual location that your business cards aren't handy. Both seemed to occur a lot at SXSW!

There are two ways to use Contxts. One way is to send your contact's mobile phone number to Contxts and they will send your business card information to your contact's mobile phone. Or, your contact can text your user ID to Contxts at 50500 and retrieve your business card data via SMS.

One of the extra benefits of Contxts is that you can list all of your favorite social media addresses in your profile, which you couldn't include on a paper business card.

Contxts won't replace paper business cards, but as they add features it should reduce the keying of new contacts into a contact manager.

I'm sure Contxts will be used a lot at our next LINC networking event.

For the business networking events I help organize we found that a significant number of the "Yes" RSVPs don't attend. Fortunately, our events are free, which means we don't have a financial obligation to meet.

However, most organizations have significant costs to host their events. So, many organizations are moving to online event registration to:

• Motivate members to pre-pay by discounting online registration prices
• Ensure a minimum number of attendees by the people who paid for event registration online
• Reduce the staff needed at the event's registration area

• Sell any number of registrations
• Accept credit cards for payment

• Display event description pages within the organization's existing Web site.
• Send e-mail invitations to a mailing list on predetermined schedule.
• Obtain the name of every attendee and the registration type (e.g., member, guest, student) that was purchased for them.
• Offer "early bird" price discounts that reward attendees for paying their event registration online.
• Offer certain types of registrations to specific groups of people (i.e., member discounts only to members, etc.),
• Limit the number of each type of registration that can be sold online to encourage early purchase.
• Customize the online registration form to ask questions specific to the event.
• Accept attendee referrals of new people, which are added to the organization's mailing list.
• Create an online community of attendees prior to an event so people know who will attend.
• Download online registrations for printing nametags prior to the event.
• Automatically update online content with links to the organization's upcoming events.
• Sell organization memberships online.
• Receive online registration payments without the cost of bank credit card merchant account fees.

This gives attendees a greater sense of quality for both the event and the organization. And, the online event registration system helps manage revenue to ensure that the event will be beneficial to the organization, too.
 

All investors contributed contacts, industry knowledge or competitive intelligence

The takeaway for entrepreneurs is that it's important to network with potential investors who bring more to the table than money. Investors who understand your industry can make introductions to prospective customers and potential business partners are worth a great deal.

The same holds true for everyone else, too. Strive to develop contacts with people who understand your industry and have connections who might be interested in what you offer.

If you're looking for a job, look for contacts who know managers who have made hiring decisions and are willing to make introductions for you.

If you're in sales, look for contacts who know purchasers of your type of products and are willing to make referrals.

If you're an investor, actively network with people who associate with entrepreneurs in the industry where you invest.

It takes time to research "who knows who," but it increases the value of your networking efforts tremendously.

1. Big groups are always better
2. Drag singles along
3. Don't dance with the one you brung
4. Nicotine Networking for nonsmokers
5. Plan fast, eat slowly
6. Use other peoples' business cards for notes
7. Organize your business card collection
8. How to remember names
9. How to remember faces
10. Don't drop the ball - use your new contacts

Check out Richard's detailed list of networking tips, then include ones that are right for you in your networking techniques.

Go To Events - Another easy one. Go to tweetups, conferences, podcamps, etc. You’ll meet people, you’ll get to talk about your startup, and you’ll get the chance to hone your message each time you meet someone new.

With all the ways we network online, much of it deals with arranging face-to-face networking.

Keep a free hand - Events aren’t about the food & drink. If you have food in one hand and a drink in the other, you won’t be able to shake hands with new people.

Sloane is the type of networker who returns from a conference with a 6" stack of business cards, so listen to the whole interview for more of Sloane's networking tips.

Events are no longer simply a conference, tradeshow, meeting or party. They are an investment with return expectations.

There are many ways to determine the return on investment, but eventually the cost of attending business meetings and events needs to translate into a financial benefit to the organizations that paid for their employees to attend.

One challenging part of estimating the ROI of sending people to big events is the time delay between expenditure and return. It can take months or years for new contacts to become customers. And, it's hard to determine the benefit what was learned from the speakers.

One approach is to have employees write a "trip report" that details the contacts they saw and the things they learned. Over time, these trip reports can be compared to the benefits from building relationships with those contacts and implementing what was learned.

In September we'll be expanding LINC with small breakfast and lunch networking meetings for business development people at local technology companies. LINC BizDev meetings are designed to help bizdev people tell their company's story to their peers so everyone can work together in growing our community.

If your bizdev person is looking for more business networking opportunities, have them request an invitation to LINC BizDev meetings.

One technique is to use search engine optimization (SEO) to attract searchers to your event description page. The challenge that most organizations face is their Web site can't get ranked high enough in search engines to matter.

There are two main components to successful SEO: page content and incoming links. It's relatively easy to optimize the content of an event page, but it's very hard to get enough links to the organization's Web site to rank high in the search engines.

A solution is to add your event to the SureToMeet event calendar because our whole site is search engine optimized. For example, SureToMeet automatically creates up to five links to your event that are fed to search engines within hours. In several recent tests every event we tested showed up on the first page of search engines, while the organization's own site ranked much further down.

For organizations that use SureToMeet's online event registration this SEO promotion is done automatically for public events. For other organizations that that use their own online event registration process, they can add their events to the SureToMeet event calendar for free and have the same SEO advantage in the search engines.

Like our slogan says, we want to help organizations bring people together face-to-face at events, seminars, and meetings.

At a networking event this week hosted by Experian Interactive Media, Stephen Semprevivo, President, spoke briefly about networking, and encouraged everyone to use storytelling as one of their networking techniques.

Everyone swaps stories at networking events, but I'm not sure everyone uses storytelling effectively to accomplish their networking goals.

There are many ways to use storytelling in your networking, such as:

• Solidify a relationship through your common experiences
• Describe a person you will introduce them to
• Demonstrate your expertise in solving a problem the other person mentioned

Here are a few resources on storytelling techniques in business:

• Once Upon a Business…The Role of Storytelling in Leadership, Management, and Entrepreneurship
• Storytelling as a Key Leadership Tool
• Marketing Is Storytelling
• The Ten Truths of Branded Storytelling

So...what's your story?

Here in the Los Angeles area several groups hold networking events for technology and media companies. However, our free LINC events seem to fill a special need in L.A., so my co-organizers and I are glad we can start hosting these events again.

If you are involved in guiding or managing some aspect of a digital media or software company you'll want to come meet others like you. Be sure to RSVP now because we're quickly approaching the limit on the number of people that the location can handle. (After you RSVP you'll be able to see who else is coming.)

If you would like to host casual networking events like this for people in your industry, here are the guidelines we've followed:

• Find a location that's easy for most people to get to.
• Make sure parking is convenient and as inexpensive as possible.
• Choose a venue that will provide a large, open meeting area - and has good food.
• Recruit one or more sponsors who will pay for the venue and food so you won't have to charge admission.
• Invite people in a narrow enough industry or sector that it's likely that everyone would like to meet each other.

If this happens, encourage every person you invite to use the "Send Invitation to Friend" form on the event page to invite people they know. Take advantage of the connectedness of your community to attract a larger group of people who will all be glad you organized the event.

In fact, when was the last time you saw a loud, boisterous salesperson at a networking event? The stereotypical salesperson at networking events is long gone because it just doesn’t work.

When I saw the post by Lindsey Pollak Why Shy People Make Great Networkers I thought about a person I've known for several years. He considers himself somewhat shy, yet he attends many events, has a large business and social network -- and is always in demand by large companies.

Lindsay tells the five reasons why she thinks shy people make great networkers:

1. They ask for personal referrals
2. They are polite
3. They listen more than they talk
4. They bring a wingman (or woman)
5. They network online

When you read Lindsey's detailed explanation of those points, think about how these techniques fit your personality for networking.

Networking is nothing more than nurturing personal relationships that create opportunities for people to help each other.

So, share Lindsey's post with friends who you would like to see attend networking events with you. You might have a new networking buddy!

How many times have you sent a YouTube link about an important issue to your contact list -- then wondered if the video made a difference in how they act? The same frustration happens when trying to use social networking sites like Facebook to made a difference.

So, how do you really make a difference on the key issues you're concerned about? Face-to-face with the people you want to influence.

When you interact with people face-to-face you have an excellent opportunity to answer their questions immediately, as well as grow your relationships with them.

For example, if you're concerned about the environment, help your friends and associates understand your concern. Annie Leonard has created a 20 minute video on the "Story of Stuff" that you can use to host a house party in your home or present at a local organization.

She also provides a complete set of communications tools, including a discussion guide, group activities, and a list of ways individuals can make a difference in advancing sustainability.

When your organization publicizes a public event like this in SureToMeet remember to select the category "Green/Sustainability" on the event description form. This helps publicize your event in three ways.

1. It helps people find your event in the SureToMeet calendar of local events.
2. Your event will be included in the SureToMeet weekly newsletter that's sent to people who want to know about sustainable and green events in their area.
3. Your event will be automatically included on other Web sites that use the SureToMeet database of sustainable and green events, such as California Green Solutions.

Using SureToMeet to publicize events is just one of the ways you can use the Internet to make a difference in your community -- and the world.

Gina Hendrix, an expert matchmaker in Los Angeles, has recently started blogging about the dating tips she shares with clients. Her recent post on "Basic dating do's & don'ts for men" reminded me of some of the tips I give people on business networking.

One tip is especially important: Be generally interested in what the other person says.

Too often people in a conversation are thinking more about what they'll say when it's their turn, instead of responding to what the other person just said.

It's more than just hearing what the other person said. It's best to ask a question or make a comment. Make it clear that you heard both the factual part and the emotional feelings that the other person expressed.

For example, if someone says, "The price of jewelry is going up!" you better know if that person is a buyer or a seller of jewelry before you automatically respond with a comment.

In addition to paying close attention to what someone says during a conversation, take good notes later. Open your contact manager and use the notes feature to enter the details that you learned. Be sure to note interesting facts that they shared, and pay close attention to their likes and dislikes.

Then, before your next visit review your past notes so you'll be prepared to move the conversation - and the relationship - along.

Whether you are meeting new people to expand your business network or your social network, many of the techniques for growing those relationships are the same.