Networking has a bad name. Associated with schmoozing and selling yourself or your business—frequently through staged social environments or algorithmic gamesmanship—it makes people squeamish. But a strong network is essential to career growth, finding jobs, and developing client relationships. It’s also a way to share and gain valuable knowledge and insights, meet interesting people, and give and receive mentorship. So how can we practice networking in ways that feel less soul sucking and more fulfilling?

In this session, Tracey Lovejoy, EPIC co-founder, and Simon Roberts, EPIC board president, will help you make networking more and gratifying (even if you’ll just never love it). They’ll discuss their strategies and provide some practical tips for professional networking, in times of both plentitude and precarity.

Speakers

Simon Roberts is a Founding Partner at Stripe Partners. He considers himself to have the best job in the world: researching the emerging frontiers of people and technology and trying to land that understanding with impact in complex environments. His career began with a PhD on the satellite TV revolution in mid 1990s India. He started the UK’s first dedicated ethnographic research company, Ideas Bazaar, then led an R&D team at Intel’s Digital Health Group. In 2013, Simon co-founded Stripe Partners, a strategy and innovation consultancy. Simon has been an EPIC author/presenter, curator, peer reviewer, and co-chair of EPIC2012 and EPIC2013. He writes and speaks widely on anthropology, ethnography, and technology. His recent book is The Power of Not Thinking.

Tracey Lovejoy is the co-founder of EPIC and a visionary leader dedicated to empowering catalysts and driving transformatlve change. After leaving her role in research, leadership and in-house coaching at Microsoft, Tracey embarked on a journey to become a leadership consultant. Her research uncovered unique skills, challenges, and patterns that define catalysts and in 2017 co-founded Catalyst Constellations, where she empowers individuals and organizations to drive bold, powerful change.