Over the past decade or so, the increasing prevalence of remote working practices has completely changed the way that a lot of professionals approach networking. For many of us, networking means sending out LinkedIn messages or trying in vain to organise a call with a potential new business partner for months.
The truth is that nothing can really replace in-person meetings when it comes to forming proper business relationships, and it should remain a central element in a lot of people’s networking strategies. From establishing your goals to following up on leads, here’s how you should approach in-person networking in 2026.
Figure out your networking goals
The first thing to note is that not all forms of networking look the same. You need to figure out whether you’re trying to meet new suppliers, new clients, new partners, simply expose your business to the rest of your niche, or some combination of all of the above.
It’s likely that your networking strategy will also need to adapt over time as your goals change. Keep on coming back to it and make sure that it remains relevant to your broader business plans
Find the right events
Next, you need to identify the correct events to meet those networking goals. Look in industry magazines and ask other contacts in your network about what events they’re going to; there will be potentially hundreds of options to choose between, and given the fact that you’ll have limited resources, you need to be specific and intentional about the events that you choose to go to.
Some of these might be local meetups of entrepreneurs, while others might be annual trade fairs with hundreds or even thousands of other attendees. Which ones are best for you will depend on your industry and what you want to achieve through your networking.
Prepare properly
No matter what networking event you decide to attend, you will need to prepare yourself properly. If you’re going to a trade show, that could mean getting a custom exhibition stand built by a service such as Focal Exhibitions, and then training a team of company reps to operate that stand.
You’ll also want to do research on who else is attending the event, preparing talking points, questions, and establishing some clear targets. Some of these events can be quite expensive to attend, and you absolutely don’t want to just walk in blind.
Follow up
Meeting people in person at industry events should be the first step in developing a long-standing relationship. What this means is that in the aftermath of these networking events, you need to make sure that you follow up with the people you started conversations with. Don’t wait too long, act while the memory is still fresh.
With a little bit of preparation, approaching in-person networking doesn’t need to be difficult at all. Make sure that you start with some clearly established goals, find the right events to meet those goals at, and then, with a bit of preparation, you should be good to go.
