Professional Networking at Virtual Conferences: How to Connect Online

Put in the Work to Build Your Professional Network

To make connections virtually, you need to put in the work. While it might be tempting to attend talks at an event and then sign off, skipping the ice breakers and happy hours, you’d miss out on those invaluable networking opportunities.

Malin Sundberg, an independent iOS developer and frequent conference speaker, described networking opportunities at iOS Conf SG 2021: “They did a really good job engaging the audience. They had a quiz at the beginning of the day and another after lunch with prizes to keep people’s energy up. The conference also had a live chat for everyone to be able to engage. I do find many conferences have adopted that and are trying to continue the conversation after the talk is done.”

These networking sessions give you the opportunity to learn about other attendees and let you share something about yourself. But learning what you have in common is only the first step in making a connection.

In the next section, you’ll get some ideas on how to move beyond this initial connection and build something lasting.

Growing a Contact Into a Connection

Making a good impression at the virtual conference is great, but to build your network, that connection needs to extend beyond the time you’re attending. Here are tips on how to nurture that relationship so it grows over time.

If you find someone that works at a company or in a role that interests you, reach out. Focus on making the connection, not on what you might want from them. Some ways to approach someone you meet during the conference include:

• Reach out to a speaker with an insightful question about their talk or a compliment on their content or presentation style. “Hey, I really appreciated what you said about navigation in SwiftUI. Your “Gotchas to Watch Out For” slide already helped me get some child views working better in a shopping app I’m building”.
• If a fellow attendee is working on something of interest to you, let them know you’d love to stay in touch to share ideas.
• If someone mentions their company is hiring, they’ll expect people to reach out. If you’re interested, briefly introduce yourself and your background and share that you’d like to learn more about the opportunity.
• If you’re familiar with a topic someone else mentioned they’re learning, reach out and ask if you can help.

Your goal is to connect via social media or a chat server to nurture that initial spark into an ongoing relationship.

Keep in mind that you’ll meet a lot of people, so it’s wise to take notes about how you met and what you discussed so you can follow up later. Continued contact is vital in maintaining a professional connection, particularly in the absence of face-to-face conversations.

Building a Strong Network

Don’t approach professional networking as a process of building up your contact list or finding someone to immediately ask for a job referral. Instead, focus your energy on building strong, long-term relationships.

Victoria Park, a self-taught iOS developer now working full-time, said this about networking: “I like to speak to people whose qualities I admire and enjoy. I think that might lead to opportunities which might be a good fit, but for me, it is all about connections. More than just getting a job, I think staying connected to the community leads you to interesting topics to learn and personalities that align with the kind of person you want to be.”

Consider someone you met at a conference, then spoke with over Zoom about a project, then kept in touch with via Twitter. You have a personal connection with this person far deeper than a brief intro at a happy hour. They’ll be more likely to think of you when their employer is hiring than someone you briefly traded LinkedIn profiles with.

After learning to write apps, Victoria landed her first iOS job at a major retailer thanks in part to her virtual networking efforts. “Through virtual events and through communication on Twitter, I found mentors who showed me what to study and helped me through the interview process. I saw someone I’d met at iOS Dev Happy Hour tweet about a job. I inquired about it and got a referral. He said that he had seen my apps and progress I had shared online. I passed the tests and interviews there and I got the job.”

You can’t force a meaningful connection, and every person and situation is different. But here are a few suggestions to strengthen virtual relationships with fellow developers:

• Engage with their content. Let them know how their blog post resonated with you, share your experience when they tweet looking for opinions and celebrate their victories with an encouraging message or thumbs up.
• Help out when you can. This might be beta testing an app or making an introduction when they’re looking for someone with certain expertise.
• Seek their advice when you have a question within their area of expertise. This depends on the size of the question, their bandwidth and how well you know them. Many people are happy to help with topics that interest them, and thanks to the Ben Franklin effect, it actually makes them more likely to want to help you again!
• Be present in the community. Show up at developer conferences and events. Be active on social media. When you bump into your contacts in multiple contexts, it gives you more to talk about and strengthens your relationship.

Some of these things may take you out of your comfort zone — that’s often a sign of growth. Still, be sure to watch social cues to avoid focusing unwanted attention on a new contact. A good indication is that healthy interactions should be two-way. If your new contact doesn’t engage with you, it’s best to limit how often you interact.

The key point is to look for opportunities to maintain contact after the conference so you’re not just another faceless connection. This is particularly important when you consider meeting someone at a virtual conference is literally a two-dimensional experience. You need to keep in touch so your new relationship doesn’t fall flat.