Managing References

how many times have you walked into a conference and exchanged a dozen or so cards and then forgotten about them ...or maybe not kept track of them....

managing the huge list of names and cards that get thrown at you is one of the big challenges of networking....

while there is clearly no science behind it - i would say its pretty useful to have a good contact management system...

versus a clean MIS approach - a contact management system has to be a step ahead of the same

besides including contact details , it is also important to include the linkages that you have with the contact .
1. This will include who all do you know thru him
2. Who all does he know
3. Who all can he possibly put you in touch with

It is also important to do a pen portrait about the individual - which includes considerable amount of research (if you are serious about it)

Pen portrait would also include an understanding of the professional history - inking in names of people that he has worked with- companies, roles, bosses, locations etc
Make an effort to capture professional qualifications - including year of passing
Include also personality traits if possible - pleasant , stern, introverted ...

As you can see a good reference system is not easy to maintain ....

One tends to dismiss this tedious effort with the thought that - i can store most of this in my mind but you will be surprised at how much of this gets forgotten after a while...

remembering individuals with whom you might have spent all of 3-5 minutes is very difficult -...remember the last time you gave a reference - you shall be surprised to notice that in most cases we tend to provide references of people we have worked with or studied - than those we have met briefly...we remember them well because we a have strong pen portrait imprinted in our mind replete with multiple memories to keep them stuck very firmly in our conscious...

definitely not the case with those brief meetings that we have had ....