Attending events

To my fellow engineers: well, we are introverted, our social skills are far from the ones of a lawyer or a person in sales. Personally speaking, I enjoy talking to strangers and getting to know them, however I have difficulties interpreting others (let's blame the much time spent coding), being culturally an outsider probably plays a role too, some language barriers are always there.

However, fight those feelings and make an effort to search and attend events relevant to you, your sector, your company, financing, innovation in your industry etc.

Go to events. We grew up in front of chats: messenger, facebook, whatsapp, before calling someone we send a message asking if they are available… and the pandemic of course didn’t help. Especially the ones first times in business and starting our careers after university. We did not have time to get to know another reality, apart from the online one.

I rediscovered what an event was and how relevant they are, this October and since then I have attended six: about blockchain (Stellar), solar panels, incubator of startups, financing, one even for pharma startups.

Events are ways to get to know more actors in your sector. I have got a lot of input by attending them, you stop wondering what’s the reality around you and you start being part of it. Open your mind… as my town is mostly focused on pharmaceutics, with few other fields of interest, I attended an event in this sector and learned from other entrepreneurs their realities and challenges, it also counts and was helpful to me.

Here is a picture from Mont Brè in Lugano, Ticino (south and Italian speaking part of Switzerland), where I attended my last event of the year and in my case also getting to know new places.

Merry Christmas!