LOCAL CASE/EXAMPLE

Context: Inclusive networking at an event

Description: You are attending a networking event organized by your company. Attendees include representatives from local and regional companies. You start speaking with a representative from a marketing company, who looks familiar to you, but you did not know the guy before. He is explaining a recent successful campaign to you and suddenly you realize that other people have gathered and are either contributing to your discussion or asking questions to the representative with whom you were speaking. You do not interrupt in the discussions, however are not comfortable with others interfering in your conversation. In the end, when people start to move around the room, you remark to the remaining ones around you that you find it rude that they had disrupted your conversation. The people neglect you.

Lesson Learnt: Since networking is an opportunity to meet, you should not block others from participating in common discussions. You should remember about empathy and also that you can learn from others. It is beneficial to include others in your conversation which will show your politeness and openness for new contacts, which is the exact purpose of networking. If you intend to have a one-to-one conversation you should step aside demonstrating the privacy.