The Seawall Networking

“Some people dream about doing great things, while others are awake and actually do them”. Anonymous.

I'd like to thank my good friend Carlos to share with us this experience, he told me about the challenge it represents to him meeting new people and doing networking, now we have his testimony to share for us in this Blog:

Because of my job I have the opportunity to travel to a Country that I have only heard of on my geography classes, and in some international news channels; Guyana. This is a former British colony considered part of the Caribbean but its location is shared with some other Sudamerican Countries. People that lives there are black skinned. The Guyana trip its always a challenge and most of it to people from non Caribbean countries; in distance is closer to Brazil or Ecuador, but the trip could take more than 16 hours because of the travel itineraries.

Speaking about networking I can say that Guyana is not a complicated place to meet people and belong immediately to a social group; The Guyana People is so cordial and friendly that the difficult thing how to be isolated.

Georgetown is the country capital city, and has the typical European Architecture, with some wooden buildings with some green or red gable roofs; as in most cities, in Georgetown are places where the people go to spend some leisure time or making some adventure activities. One of this spots is The Seawall, this is a place that invites you to stay because of its relaxing sunset or its beach theme party. It is also a historic place that shares with you some of its history and events that happen to make this city rememorable.

I decided to take a walk on the seawall so I could share some of my knowledge of this place. When I can get there it was almost a lonely spot, at the most you could see some couples enjoying the sea breeze. When I arrive I started to think this is not a place to meet with people, you should bring someone with you if you want to make networking. Even though I keep walking to see if I could manage to meet somebody. I was thinking on getting back when a minivan full with young people between 16 and 18 years old arrived to this place. So I decided to stay and see the cultural development of this group.

I kept on a prudent distance for some minutes, and I could just confirm that the Guyana's are a particularly fun people, they enjoy life, and as soon as they came out the van they started dancing and running. A very contagious joyful way. Then I remembered my mission was to get some Guyana best memories and also to meet some people, so I approached the youngster group and I walked smiling and making eye contact. Immediately a couple of them greet me and I think by myself, this is easy.

I seize the moment and reach them and started a conversation. I'm relatively new on this networking, so my approximation techniques are really simple. I started by asking, How you doin? and my first challenge represented to understand and been understood. This process take some Excuse Me? but finally both parties made the proper adjustments and the conversation flow.

It was a school group of their 12th year K education, they were at the Seawall to achieve an extra academic credit, something that should be common at Georgetown. They asked me what I was doing over there and I told them about the new Marriott Hotel construction I was supervising, and the challenges that it compelled to do a job like this. They seemed very interesting on the subject and I was pretty amazed sharing with them my stories.

 

I stayed with them approximately 30 minutes, in this time I also learned about the idea of investing in countries like Guyana, that are not representative of some industries, like the tourist one, but I learned that at the end the market is the people that buys and not the natural resources and the cultural legacy. They could think about what an International Enterprise like Marriott could give to them in job offer, infrastructural development, and the community approach.

I do my farewell really tired maybe because my lack of experience at networking and because I feel I couldn't manage it in a natural way, like me having to do a lot of effort and thinking about each word I say, something that I enjoy each time I do it.