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June 20, 2012 at 12:00 AM
There’s nothing like getting the gang together. Salespeople have great power and energy when we gather in person and share successes, ideas and information. At conferences, we learn as much from conversations with peers in the hallways outside the sessions as we do inside. But with the web, there is no “hallway” to congregate in.
At a recent conference, an attendee sat down near me and proceeded to place the following three devices on the table, one at a time:
- iPhone
- iPad
- Laptop
All three. Right in front of her. During a conference presentation. So much for being present.
No toys at the table. My conference tablemate worked on all three devices during the entire presentation. Maybe she was tweeting, answering emails or writing a blog post. I’ll never know for sure. But I do know she couldn’t possibly give her full attention to the speaker. So why did she even bother to attend? How did she ever hope to connect with the speakers, her fellow tablemates or other conference attendees?
How hard is it to just unplug? True, fancy new technology is alluring. It’s easy to get sucked into the digital universe. But you need to connect person to person first if you ever hope to expand your network. The power of connections is infinite—and I’m not talking about computers.
