Hotspotting: NetWorking in a Wireless World: Part 2

Last month, we discussed how to get WiFi working so you can begin “hotspotting”. Specifically, we discussed:

What WiFi is.
How to see if you have it.
How to get it working.
Where you can find it.

This month, we will merge WiFi Internet access and networking with people.  But, first a little story about a real world WiFi experience from the field - literally.

On a driving trip from Denver to Minneapolis a few weeks ago, I had some work that just couldn’t wait until I got there. In fact, it couldn’t even wait until we got to a hotel that evening.  mazingly, sometimes people just don’t take into account the fact that you might be traveling through South Dakota or Iowa or Nebraska and that you might not be able to send them that document or respond to their e-mail with the usual turnaround times.

On the way, we were conscious to stay only in hotels that had Internet and/or WiFi service available. They were amazingly easy to find.  During the day, we were actively looking for places along the way where we could get a bit of WiFi so that our careers didn’t take a hit along the way. I am very proud to say we were successful on all accounts.

We got great WiFi service at hotels in Lusk (Wyoming), in Mitchell (South Dakota) and in Kearney (Nebraska).

We found great WiFi service at some interesting places along the way, including a truck stop in Nebraska and a rest stop in Iowa. See the pictures to get the point.

Now for this month’s topic – hotspotting to network with others, in person.

There are some places that are just better for meeting and networking with fellow hotspotters than others. Here are the best types of places to hotspot and some strategies for networking while “on-line”:

Coffee Shops

Coffee shops are, without a doubt, the very best place to network while hotspotting. It is VERY rare to encounter a coffee house that does NOT have WiFi. It is expected almost universally nowadays. In the last 2 years, I have only found one coffee shop without WiFi in the Denver area and it was not very crowded. I wonder why.

A very large percentage of the people at a Starbucks (for example) are there to meet with someone else. I have heard it stated by a very wise networker that Starbucks is not a coffee house but a great place to enjoy a cup of coffee and meet with people.

These people are there to meet with someone for business (perhaps in the spirit of networking) and there you are sitting right next to them. Generally these people have someone specific that they are there to meet with, but that is only part of it and that is only part of the crowd.

A very large number of people go to coffee houses to hang out, get a cup of coffee, do a little e-mail (or some other types of work) and maybe make some new friends or business contacts in the process. The laptop opens up some new doors and gives you something even more interesting to talk about.

Bars and Restaurants

You are finding more people using their laptops at bars and restaurants all the time, especially sports bars and other places that cater to the “happy hour” crowd.  This is probably the second most popular place to find hotspotters.

Driving this expansion into bars and restaurants is the greater availability of low cost DSL service and the use of inexpensive consumer grade equipment at the venues. In many cases, you can actually “steal a signal” from a nearby business at a bar or restaurant if they don’t have their own for you to use. 

While the availability of WiFi service in bars and restaurants it is getting more widespread all the time, it hasn’t quite hit mainstream yet. WiFi service is actually most widespread with sports bars.  Wonder why? It might be fantasy football or other sports promotions.

There are lots and lots of on-line promotions that accompany sports and there is nothing quite as exciting as watching a game in a crowd of great fans. Of course it is much better if they are rooting for your team!

So, beyond these fanatical sports fans, who are these people that use their laptops at bars and restaurants?

• People leaving the office early to grab a drink and finish up their work in a more interesting place.
• People meeting with others after work for a drink to meet, chat, network, go over a proposal.
• Traveling business people who are from out of town on business that may want a place to do some work, unwind a bit, have a drink and a bite to eat and maybe meet some of the “locals”.

People who carry their laptops around in their work during the day that:

• Don’t need to rush home
• Don’t want to fight the traffic at that time of day
• Have a few things to get done before their day is done
• Want to hook up with someone after work and, while they are waiting, they catch up on a few things.
• People that want an interesting environment to do an on-line (or off-line) presentation to a client or perhaps a business partner.

Mike’s Best Practices for Hotspotting

In my years and years of hotspotting, I have developed some “best practices” for meeting others and I am ready to share them with you.  Adapt these to your personalities if you like, but they really do work and they are really fun to do as well.

• Wear a shirt with your company logo or name on it.  If you don’t have one, wear the shirt of a company from your industry.  This will draw people in to talk with you and it gives you an initial talking point.  This works in either direction.  If you see someone with a company shirt on, look at it and see if there may be some type of connection.  You might say…

“Do you work for XXX company?”

“What does XXX company do?”

Use your intelligence to guess what they might do and use that as an inroad to make contact. For example, if it says a word like systems, data, services, products, etc. it may be a technology company.

• Have some interesting things lying out to attract some attention. Maybe some files, some trade rags, some brochures, anything that opens up a dialogue with some one that may see it.
• Sit in a strategic location, one where you can see people come and go.  our back to a wall, maybe looking toward the waiting line or toward the door are among the best spots I have found. You want a table flat surface. Do not sit in a comfy couch or chair with your laptop on, well, the top of your lap. It gets hot and you can’t do it very long without getting uncomfortable.
• Look for where there is power and as little glare as possible. It is tough when you are running down on power and there is no place nearby to plug in. Why squint if you don’t have to?
• Pay attention to the comings and goings of the people. Be looking up frequently as people come and go.  Keep your eyes moving around the room a bit. Do a little work on the keyboard, work with some documents, write some notes, and mix it up. This shows that you are interested in meeting others and are not just there to hammer out a few things in a social vacuum.

Tools

There are some important “Tools of the Trade” that come in handy – the laptop of course, an extension cord, some file folders, a notepad, some business cards, a brochure or two, etc.

How about a portable printer? I have one and it has been great for my productivity and for meeting people.It is very convenient to be able to print out a document, a contract, a resume, etc. whenever you need it.  Make a few edits, print it out and use it. Don’t wait another day when it will not be as valuable to others.

As a networking strategy, I offer to do printing for others at the hotspot.They give me a document on a memory stick or e-mail me a document and I hand them the printout and a business card and even a brochure sometimes. It ALWAYS spawns a conversation.It definitely establishes you as a leader in the hotspot sweepstakes and gets you noticed. This alone will get you into conversations that you would have never gotten into--Very interesting conversations.

The best portable printer I have found, hands down, is the Canon iP90. The cost is about $225. A battery is another $90. It can even be a wireless to your laptop using Bluetooth technology (even more $$, but it may be worth it). A totally untethered printer that quickly spits out beautiful color pages at a hotspot is almost magic!

A portable printer can also serve as a backup for your regular printer if it should fail or run out of ink or toner at a bad time. This exact scenario recently happened to me.

You are now equipped with what you need to know to participate in the practice of “hotspotting”.  Go ahead, give it a try. Send me your comments and tell me about your experiences.
 

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Contact Mike at MikeO@TheNationalNetworker.com or via TNNW Blog.