Blog Post #131: Are Industry Mixers Really Good For Networking?

Question for your column: I’m getting a lot of invitations to industry mixers. What are your thoughts on the networking value? I’m wondering if it isn’t too dark, crowded (300-400 people) and noisy to be worth anyone’s time?

DAVID’S ANSWER:

You do realize that the main point of the mixers is to make money for the organizers, right? While it is possible to meet industry people at these events, if you just go and don’t know what you want to accomplish, you will likely accomplish nothing.

If you go in trying to meet a couple of people with a specific purpose then maybe something can happen but you need to be disciplined and business-like and simply find the people you are looking for and try to arrange a meeting with them later so you can discuss whatever relationship you want to have with these people.

Or you can just try to have fun, which sometimes is worthwhile, as it is good to get to know some people in your industry but most of the people at the things are the people that you don’t want to meet. They are people like you who are trying to meet people who can help them.

It is much easier to simply approach these people directly at their offices rather than at some contrived mixer.

Personally, I don’t even see need for a mixer. If you know what you want and who you want to meet with, then just approach them directly. Going to a mixer is a very random way of networking or building relationships. Why not take control of it and decide who you want to meet and you can talk to someone without a crowd of people standing around you.

You just need to understand where you are in terms of your career and go after the things you should be going after at this stage in your career. If you are a beginner, there is no point in trying to get auditions from professional casting directors or anything else that is not appropriate to the stage you are asked in your career. He simply wants to meet people and try to extend the relationship beyond the mixer.

Overall, I would say these are largely a waste of time because personally I do not enjoy them. If you do enjoy them and you have any idea of what you want to get out of it then it is possible you could get something out of it. It probably depends a lot on who is going to be there, and who is organizing it, and how much money you are willing to spend to take the chance to find out if there are any benefits for you.

I would say it wise to try going to one or two just to see what they are like. What might be a better thing is to actually help organize one of these things because then you get to meet the people before the mixer who you’d want to meet at the mixer.

Hope that helps.

– David

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