1) Ask a question, during the Q&A portion of the event. By asking an intelligent question you should your understanding, that you were paying attention and that you respect their opinion enough to want it.

2) Generally after the session a bunch of people crowd the front table to talk to the speakers. Join them. You’ll get to listen to a ton of interesting cases (many of them will be asking the speakers questions – perhaps you can even venture an answer?) and even if you don’t have anything to ask, let the speaker know that you really enjoyed hearing them speak – and maybe even which part of their talk they found most relevant.

Think of how it will be when you begin presenting social networking tips at colleges – won’t you want feedback? To know that this part was helpful and that part less so? It’s likely the speakers at the event want the same.

Try talking about something other than work. The conversation will work its way around to that anyway (that’s why you’re there). But the whole point of networking is that you want to talk to the person – not have a discussion about how amazing they are. It’s a two way thing. Saying hi to strangers is always scary, but once you’ve done it once, you’ll find yourself doing it more. And then it’s just fun. Business cards don’t help unless you’ve had the conversation first (I’ve lost count of the amount of PRs who have a ‘business card quota’ for events and just thrust their card in your face and walk off after barely saying a word). But they are vital so get yourself some. You don’t have to hand them out to everyone who asks, and then the next day, after someone has given you a card, drop them an email saying it was nice to meet them. They’ll remember you the next time making it so much easier to talk to them at the next event. Et voila, you’re networking, without ‘networking’.