This weekend I will be traveling to Mountain View, Arkansas, to hang out with 70 other bloggers.

AWBU 2012 at Mountain View, AR

We will share our experiences and our knowledge. We will learn from each other and we will make new friends that will last for years. The importance of these “in person” blogging events cannot be easily expressed or quantified.

Okay, so maybe sometimes we have a hard time actually talking to each other… in person

If you are a blogger and you’ve been to a conference of any sort, whether it was BlogHer in NYC or a small regional conference, you know what I’m talking about. Just one new relationship can make the trip worth it. If you are a blogger and you haven’t ever been to a conference, maybe you should consider committing to one this year. I promise a powerful experience no matter the conference.

If you are one of the other bloggers attending AWBU this weekend be sure to bring business cards and hand them out freely. Don’t be shy.

Networking Tip #1

I can assure you we are all a little socially awkward even if we don’t look it. My friend Lela Davidson is a fantastic conversation starter, so when we were sitting in the airport on our way to BlogHer earlier this month I asked her for her best tips.

“Oh I just run through the five W’s: Where are you from? What brings you here?

I was an accountant and learned early that if I wanted to get in with the good firms I had to stand out and be able to network. There’s no magic to it.”

The best fiends I have to date are the ones I saw standing alone at an event and reached out to or vice versa. We all just want to be included.

Lela and me at the cast party at the Iceberg

Networking Tip #2

The business cards are important for a couple reasons:

1. They give you someone to do with your hands
2. They are a great visual cue weeks later when you’re going through your conference info and trying so hard to remember who Stephanie McCratic was

App Review: CardMunch

For fast business card processing try CardMunch. This smartphone app is integrated with LinkedIn and it has intelligent photo reading capabilities, so when you get a card you do three things:

1. Open CardMunch
2. Take a picture of e business card (the app catalogues all of the info on the card for you)
3. Click “connect” and now you are connected on LinkedIn (assuming card-giving person accepts your request to connect).

Isn’t that amazing?!

See you at AWBU! And if I’m standing alone in a corner please come introduce yourself.