By Nathan Spencer, Director at UKREiiF

Having previously worked in the world of sports fashion, I was amazed at the quantity of events and gatherings outside of the traditional workplace that just weren’t a thing in my former industry. Yes, a catch-up with partners and invitations to sporting events were frequent, but nothing on the scale of the property, real estate, and investment industries.

So for those who are new to the industry, we thought we’d share some key benefits of attending events like UKREiiF, whether it’s for you personally, for your business, or for your career.

Personal Development

At the beginning, especially networking, it can be really uncomfortable, and you have to get yourself outside of your comfort zone, but this enables you to personally develop and grow very quickly. From boosting your confidence to approach individuals in a networking room to enhancing your ability to better connect with individuals, these are skills that can all be implemented in the workplace, especially when you go into business meetings, whether that’s with internal or external teams, and they help you communicate better with individuals within the workplace. It can also push you onto bigger stages; the confidence built from networking can make opportunities such as speaking on stage less daunting too.

Business Development

Many people attend networking events because their end goal is to grow their business. I’m always pleasantly surprised, however, that it’s never usually a sales pitch you hear. You need to have a good elevator pitch sorted, that’s true, but actually, networking is about building relationships, and those relationships over time turn into sales and business growth. Sharing your thoughts when having conversations on some of the biggest challenges and topics in the industry at present can really highlight your company’s expertise, and I often find that a networking contact will pass you on to another contact too.

Improving Your Personal Brand

If you have a desire to move up the industry and build a career, then networking can be essential in this industry, and I find it’s a perfect way to grow your personal brand. It goes hand in hand with being more visible on the relevant platforms, such as social channels; in my case, I focus on LinkedIn, but ensuring you’re visible and in the right places can only aid your reach and engagement. Your end goal might be progression in your current business, an opportunity externally, or to simply get more eyes on what your business is doing. And make sure you’re engaging with those people you’ve met at networking events and continuing the relationship.

New Ideas and Learnings

Jumping into networking events can throw the conversation down some roads you’ve not got the most expertise in. In the past week alone, networking has gotten me into detailed conversations around RAAC, nuclear power, nutrition issues, biodiversity net gain, and more. It’s a great eye-opener to be able to ask questions of experts, growing your knowledge base so you’re able to hold conversations in all of these fields, which again leads back into your personal brand and potential business growth. At UKREiiF, we’re expecting 10,000+ delegates in 2024, and that’s 10,000+ experts that you can learn from, and they can also learn from you.

Wrap Up

Versatility is a huge strength in any business, and I find networking is a great way to benefit your skills in so many different areas and make you a more versatile and pro-active individual in your workplace. Whether it be soft skills around building relationships or harder skills around sales and business development, there are a plethora of reasons why networking is key.

We’re planning to host a number of pre-UKREiiF network training and guidance events aimed at those who want to learn some tips and tricks on how to extract the most out of networking, and more details will be shared over the coming weeks on how we make that happen.

For any further information, contact me at [email protected] 

By Nathan Spencer, Director at UKREiiF