Merry Christmas!🎄❄️ Seems like this is going to be a cozy slow week:

Hey! Andres here,

Welcome welcome! This week is a bit slow in events (I wonder why…) haha, I just want to wish you and your loved ones a merry Christmas. I will still send out one of these next week, even if the events are going to be close to 0 or none.

As the year wraps up, I want to invite you to connect and let me know what you would like to see shared here. I know people liked the recommendations of places, but I have not found any new ones to share, so please share if you have some!

Here’s what we got this week:

• Lean forward moment

• 3 events!

Alright, let’s get started! ❄️

“Lean forward moment” of the week - Structuring Events for Connections

We finally made it. We are now at the event, so… what are the next steps?

Glad you ask!

(for those new here - it’s a whole thing, I have been reading the book “the 2-hour cocktail party” before hosting my first event and sharing notes here, feel free to check out previous weeks here)

Now, with that out of the way — let’s get started.

First, let’s look at the structure for the event or party:

You will notice that there are a few “Icebreakers” and you may say “hey, I have not done an icebreaker since I was in kindergarten” well, lucky you, we are back to it! Haha.

No, but honestly. How many times have you been in a nice event, and you know it’s full of interest people but don’t know how to get started or who to talk to?

That is what icebreakers are for, we will introduce simple questions to loosen up our guests.

We will talk about more about icebreakers, but first I want to talk about the Awkward zone, which is the first item in our list.

This time is those first minutes while the first few people are coming in, maybe we only got a couple of people that you don’t even know that well, so how do we deal with awkward conversations?

The book actually suggests assigning tasks.

Don’t make it awkward for the guests as well, often times they want to help, and by doing so you can have them become an extension of you who also benefits because they are helping other guests when they arrive.

A few examples of the tasks they could do are:

1. writing guests’ first names on their beverage cups with marker

2. snack support: setup and refills

3. party photographer

4. conversation starter: help others say hi to someone new

Now, onto icebreakers. Honestly, I am excited about doing these at my first event. I know it sounds silly but it is kind of like a game and like it relaxes the room, it puts everyone on the same level.

We will do our first icebreaker when we get 5 people, we gather them in a circle and allow them to tell us who they are, what they do for work (or if they don’t want to talk about work it can be about something they are passionate about like a hobby or charity), and then to answer the icebreaker. Here are a few options:

• What was the first job that you ever got paid to do?

• What was your first online screen name, and why did you choose it?

• What’s one of your favorite drinks, with or without alcohol?

• What is your favorite thing to have for breakfast?

Excerpt From The 2-Hour Cocktail Party Nick Gray This material may be protected by copyright.

⚠️ Quick warning: Do not make icebreakers questions that are too personal, like: “what is your biggest fear?” most people are not ready for that level of openness.

The way you start is by starting yourself and letting the person who is going next that you will let them go after so they are not caught off guard. You start because you want to share something that is not a common answer - but one that has more flare.

For example:

My name is Andres, I am the founder of Design Desk, a website design agency that helps businesses and non-profits convert more users into paying customers. My favorite thing to eat for breakfast is Pizza with corn or pineapple - I know… I know, sue me, haha.

By doing an answer like this, I invite others to have a more open and honest answer. Notice how it keeps it simple, it allows for this dynamic to not take so long and allows for conversations to start backup with now topics that will get them going.

You just need 2 icebreakers for the entire event, one you will use for the first few people and with the bigger group. Then the second one later in the event. We will go over how that one differs in the next newsletter (or next, I may do something different for next week)

🖥️ Convert more website users into clients

🗓️ Now, the events…

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Thank you for reading! Quick thing before I go:

1. If you are new or would like to read older posts, check out this page. There is a backlog of previous weeks of “The Networking Desk”

2. Know someone who would benefit from this newsletter? Be sure to share it with them! 📩 (just copy the link or forward this email) I will keep putting out great newsletters for them and for you. That’s a promise.

See you next week.

- Andres Inciarte