The high school prom. Do you remember yours? For every daydream you had of dancing the night away to your favorite Billy Idol song, wrapped in the arms of your crush, there was also the pre-prom nightmare of arriving late, of wearing the wrong clothes, of spending the night alone on the bench while the guy or gal of your dreams leaves hand-in-hand with somebody else.

Unless you’re a die-hard social butterfly, networking events may inspire similar mixed feelings of both fear and anticipation in you.  In your mind’s eye, you see yourself effortlessly breezing from group to group, waves of laughter following you as you regale your peers with tales of your company’s climb to fame. In reality, you find yourself leaving after several awkward hours, tail between your legs, the pack of business cards you had specially printed for the event unopened in your pocket.

What can you do to make sure that the time and money you put into attending professional networking events pays off?

No matter what your reasons for attending, you won’t achieve a thing if you don’t talk to people, and to do that, you must first break the ice. You may have the most amazing business plan in the world, but nobody will know it if you don’t take that first step and make contact with them.

We asked industry experts for their best networking icebreakers. Read more…

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