The Business Blog at Intuitive.com

Dave Taylor has been involved with the online world since 1980 and is recognized globally as an expert on both technical and business issues. He has been published over a thousand times, launched four Internet-related startup companies, has written twenty business and technical books and holds both an MBA and MS Ed. He's a columnist for the Boulder Daily Camera and Linux Journal and frequently appears in other publications both online and in print. Additionally, Dave maintains four weblogs: The Business Blog at Intuitive.com, Ask Dave Taylor, Dave On Film, and GoFatherhood. Based in beautiful Boulder, Colorado, Dave is an award-winning speaker, sought after conference and workshop participant and frequent guest on radio and podcast programs, as well as active member of his community and busy single father to three children.

How I keep track of conference meetups: LinkedIn

I go to a lot of conferences, often to speak, but sometimes just to hang out, soak up the ambience, and mostly meet new people and learn about their interests, goals and ideas. It's heady stuff, and I've long since shared that it's the "10pm at the bar" meetings, the "bumped into each other in the hallway" serendipity that really can make a conference a career-changing event.

Lots of times the people I meet are interesting but don't immediately rock my world (and probably just as well!) so I end up coming home with yet another stack of business cards and the constant dilemma of people who are professionally active: what the heck do you do with those business cards once you get 'em?

My solution: Invite everyone to join me on LinkedIn.

Here's why...

I'm the first to admit that there are already too many social networks, too many wanna-be MySpace or Facebook or LinkedIn clones. They leave me exhausted, suffering from social network fatigue. Heck, the SF Chronicle profiled me after I wrote about the problem of too many social networks (see Social network sites becoming too much of a good thing, if it's still online).

On the other hand, a million business cards cascading across my desk is marginally interesting but really not very helpful, and when I want to find that delightful woman I met from Yahoo! (Nasdaq: YHOO) or sharp manager from Google (Nasdaq: GOOG), I hate digging through the stacks. I first thought "ah, I'll buy a business card scanner", but the ones I tried universally stunk big time.

So I have resorted to the simple and expedient solution of sending a nice "glad we met up" note to everyone I meet at a conference through LinkedIn. I hope that they'll link to me so we can memorialize our connection, but even if not, at least I have what sales gurus call "a touch", a chance to communicate with them and say that, quite genuinely, I enjoyed meeting them and hope we can work together in the future.

If you've met me and given me a card, you've probably received one too.

My invites to LinkedIn aren't the stock - dull, ineffective - messages, however. Here's what I just sent out to the people I met at the recent Blog Business Summit:

So what do you think? Would you jump over the moat and sign up for LInkedIn so we could capture our meeting and connection if you received a message like that?

And, while we're at it, how do you deal with the stack of business cards you pick up at a conference, event, exhibition, workshop, etc etc etc?

Before you leave a comment, a tip: If you're interested in blogging, you should sign up for my Blogsmart News so you can stay up to date on the latest insider tips and ideas for your Internet business and marketing efforts. Sign up right now and you'll get a free copy of my "Insider's Guide to Blogging" ebook too!