A great confidence boosting night!

I'm very happy to report that last night's second ever CWiC event - Smart Networking Workshop - was a real success.  Thanks to Nadia Cenci's intensive coaching 16 of us learnt tricks for remembering people's names, practised presenting ourselves and explored the use of social networking media.

Cambridge Women in Construction in action

How to do a great 'elevator pitch'

It's interesting to think how we all market ourselves in some way even if we don't think we are in the business of looking for business.  The radio programme "Digital Human" has a good take on this.  Many of what we learnt last night could be applied to different parts of life - getting a new job, a promotion, developing expertise or just feeling better about what you do. 
These are the main things I took away from it:

• have a niche and be specific, that way when you introduce yourself to someone they'll remember you as the one who does 'x' not just another 'whatever'
• you can connect with people through other people, hmm, sounds obvious now I write it - but for example, if you want to work with rich footballers find out who they hang out with and target them instead
• have your card somewhere accessible and not in the depths of your handbag
• don't be afraid of social media - cwic_tweet coming soon to a #hashtag near you!!!