I am a fairly social person, and had my share of going to events/parties where I knew almost no-one, but managed to connect with new people and have a good time.
However, when it comes to professional, formal events, I am totally lost. I like to be myself a lot, but of all these types of events I went, the people I (tried) to interact with seems to be so ungenuine, borderline rude. If I try to present myself, or start any topic that goes beyond “how are you? I’m X, working for Y”, they either gaze away, or just cut off conversation with “nice, see you around/enjoy the event”, and walk off. Sometimes, they even fake laugh on the most ridiculous things, and then walk away. Doesn’t even last a minute. The most surprising is that this includes people that I met beforehand (but granted, no close relationship).
Now, I know for a fact that I don’t stink. Which makes me guess that most people on these events have an agenda of their own to complete, which tends to go like “Speak with person X and Y of X companies. Talk a lot, get business. Everyone else? Say hello, be “nice”, but don’t waste more than 30 seconds, and walk off”.
Which, fair enough, I guess professional events are business time. But then people like me, who joined a new industry and are trying to make connections/network, and get to know the industry better, just get left to dust.
The only time I managed to socialize with anyone in these events was when there were designed seats on the tables, and (some) persons near me really wanted to just talk while eating.
What were your experiences on these types of events? Any feedback from you would be very welcome.