How to get plugged-in to the local network

I am going to be on a panel about getting “plugged-in” to a local network of people. Obviously this has a lot of uses, from networking for a job, to networking to find business partners, to finding customers, to finding a significant other. There are loads of reasons to network and everyone has their own approach. I’ve had some success with it and built Seattle Lunch 2.0 in the process (btw, there is a lunch this Friday with some cool Demos and another next Friday over at Gist).

While I do have a lot of my own thoughts, I would be more interested in your thoughts about how to build a network and how to get plugged into a network where you previously have not been active. There are a lot of theories and methods for this sort of thing and of course every network is unique, I’d be interested in hearing your feedback on a couple of basic questions…

• How do you go about networking?
• In-Person, Virtual, or a mix?
• Do you network at events, or one-on-one?
• How do you decide which events to attend?
• How do you ensure you have a solid reliable network?

I’ll share my thoughts post presentation (if you are interested in attending in person let me know)!!