Meet and Greet
... I posted several weeks ago that I'd be available for this M&G but only if someone decided to step up and make a formal invite (meaning a 4hr/4500 travel date). Not a peep was heard... So I made other plans with a wonderful gent in another city. Now, less than 24 hours to go and I'm getting bombarded with inquiries for tomorrow.
Gents, help me... help you!
My calendar tends to fill 3-6 weeks in advance and as screening and deposits are required, there's usually several days-to-a-week lead time that's absolutely necessary for new friends. If you want to see me at the M&G, with all due respect.... put your money where your mouth is ... and do it in a timeframe that is reasonable. 
Flying halfway across the country just to have cocktails simply isn't going to happen without a sponsor.
Of course, if no one attending the M&G cares to meet me, that's just fine... I'll simply enjoy my existing friends and wish health and happiness to everyone else.
... but there's only so much either of us can do. I had Eros, P411, RS2K and TER ads up (not to mention your Evite) to the same effect and yet there were crickets for several weeks followed by a flurry of T-24hrs interest for this shindig. I simply don't operate in such a slap-dash-haphazard way. At some point the gents who have seen my ads for several weeks and but failed to act until less than 24hrs before the event need to understand what (and when it) is needed and behave accordingly if they want to have the results they say they do.
Now, I've been advertising my next regular Chicago trip for over 3 weeks (and it's not for several months yet) and that trip is about 75% booked. How interesting that a regular trip is nearly booked several months out but a one day only (and only if I'm booked for it) visit has this sort of response.
Perhaps the M&G crowd simply isn't my market.... It's perfectly ok if that's the case - just be nice to know!
Perhaps I look bad to some.... but to others, I look like a smart businesswoman who will choose a guaranteed pay date over taking the time out of my otherwise profitable schedule to meet with a bunch of guys, on my own dime, who aren't likely to book me anyway (based on the fact that I actually do screen, require deposits and have a busy enough schedule to need to plan things several weeks out while they are last minute, no time to screen or send deposit types).
Guess it just depends on one's perspective!
xo
Its really super simple... I don't know why this is so hard for some people to understand. (The others who do understand it, thank you for your PMs to that affect.)
I was not planning on being in the area to begin with.
I was contacted and specifically asked to attend.
I said that I would attend if someone there cared to invite me (that whole travel date thing).
Traveling halfway across the country without actual business arranged is .... well... dumb.
Time - gone.
Travel expenses - gone.
Business at home or elsewhere - gone.
All for the *chance* that someone *might* book me at some undisclosed future date?
Dumb, dumber, dumbest.
I haven't the time in my schedule to chase larks nor do I have interest in going where I'm not invited. What world do people live in where that makes any kind of sense?! Companies with employees may send several to various conventions or other places to hawk their wares and attempt to gain new clients but when it's a company of one and there's business to be had elsewhere.... would anyone turn that guaranteed business down to go to some networking junket? That's got me scratching my head like Scooby-Doo.
The time spent at the M&G would not be billable (duh!) to the gent who invited me. Therefore, it would not be on his dime that I am mingling. Our time would be before or after the event where he can enjoy my full attention. That's only fair...
There were crickets until T-24hrs then a rush of less-than-travel-date inquiries. This tells me that those attending the party A) hadn't the means/interest to extend an actual invite; or B) didn't care to comply with screening requirements. Quite simply, they (whomever "they" are) showed themselves to not be my "market" for a travel date. Ok... no biggie! Geesh, I've said it several times now....
Now, perhaps if I were already in town (as I plan to be at a later date) and there were a M&G to be happening, I'd love to stop by and see if there were any gents who might care to see me for a quick intro date but who were not inclined/able to extend a travel invite. If so, terrific! If not, no skin of my nose... no lost time... no lost income... no lost travel expenses... It's all good!
Why people get up in arms over a simple thing like this mystifies me. It's not as if I owe it to anyone to show up somewhere so they can get their looky-loo on. And it's also not as if anyone owes me a travel date. Funny thing is that *I* am ok with not being booked for a travel date but some of you gents aren't ok with me not falling all over myself to make some incredibly dumb decision to visit y'all for absolutely no reason!
Crazy.... I tell ya....
And as for that other comment about these being purely social occasions and folks should attend for purely social reasons.... If that works for you, terrific. That's not how I see it. These are networking functions. Pure and simple. (Of course, you can still like the people you work with/for... but that doesn't change the fact that you work with/for them and networking is not socializing no matter how entertaining it may be.) If this is truly your social outlet, I would not want to trade lives with you. And if this is how you view networking functions, I'd also not want to trade bank balances.
-- Modified on 3/14/2012 7:44:51 AM