How to become the most annoying person at every tech event

Networking advice teaches you to be proactive. Follow it, and you'll fly to New York or Paris, spend about $5,000 chasing headliners and collecting business cards, and fly home with a contact list of strangers who'd rather never see you again.

Skin in the game

I also tried to follow those popular networking rules.

4.5 years ago, I moved from Ukraine to Poland, fleeing the cruel, ongoing war started by russia, and had to rebuild my professional and personal circles from zero.

I was moving from tradfi and crypto into web3 and broader tech, spaces still walled off by tight communities. Everyone seemed to know each other from some side events you missed.

So I showed up, but my first steps sometimes were chaotic. I had to clarify how to act and read non-verbal signals. In some situations, I could be even annoying or out of context.

Later, I fixed the way I built my network. I spoke at conferences, launched the Decentralized Voices podcast, co-organized five blockchain- and AI-focused events, and led the SheFi chapter. You can go deeper on that story by watching the video about building relationships in global tech.

This year alone, I've been to about 30 tech meetups and conferences, and I watched the same three networking rules backfire at almost every one. Here they are. Let me know if I missed anything.

3 stupid networking rules and what works instead

Here are my takes on why the standard rules fail in practice, and the alpha on what works. They apply to any tech-focused niche, where personal relationships are as important as speed of decision-making.

Rule 1: "Be always ready to pitch"

The advice to always have your elevator pitch ready is good, really. The problem appears when the timing is weird. I often see people who try not just to explain what they do, but act like they're on the Shark Tank show while they're on the dance floor at the conference afterparty, or they see a potential customer in a queue at the airport.

Most likely, a person will nod politely, scan the room, and look for an excuse to disappear.

Lead with genuine curiosity. Ask what THEY are currently working on or what's happening in their country. Then, listen. They will remember how interested you were in their work far longer than they will remember your pitch. Save your story for when they ask. If the vibe is right, they always will.

The "follow up within 24 hours" rule has the same timing problem.

Picture Web Summit: 70,000 attendees, 3,000 startups, and hundreds of VCs. A founder working a booth pitches from 9 am to 5 pm, then spends the evening at a partner dinner or collapses in the hotel. Four days in a row.

By the time they reach the gate at Lisbon airport, 40 messages on LinkedIn and X say "Great to meet you at Web Summit!" Left on read, then archived.

Follow up when you have a high-context reason. Send a one-line message three weeks later linking a topic or market shift you discussed. Late and highly specific always beats fast and generic.

Rule 2: "Work the room"

The CEO of a hyped AI startup finishes his talk, and within 90 seconds a crowd of 30 forms at the side of the stage. Phones up, badges swinging, everyone angling for the same selfie. You get yours, but by the time you post it with a "we're cooking" caption, he's forgotten your face.

Then you go "work" the rest of the room. Every conversation lasts four minutes. Halfway through each one, you're reading the badge of the person behind whoever you're talking to. You send 25 LinkedIn requests, and half of them never get accepted.

Meanwhile, twenty meters away by the coffee station, an engineer who spoke on a panel stands alone with a flat white. Nobody's queuing for them. They have strong opinions about the "AI will kill us" debate and nobody to argue with. That conversation can turn into a job offer, a podcast episode, or an intro to the VC backing their company.

At Web Summit's 2025 opening night, Paddy Cosgrave reminded the crowd that Revolut first showed up ten years earlier as a three-person startup with a tiny stand.

Now it's Europe's most valuable private tech company. Back then, talking to its founders cost a walk across the hall. Today it costs a spot in the queue.

Rule 3: "Your network is your net worth"

People take this one at face value and start counting. 4,000 LinkedIn connections. A Telegram with 100+ muted group chats.

By mid-September 2026, Layoffs.fyi had logged 128,536 tech layoffs at 299 companies, already more than in all of 2025. Many of those people found out that half their network was attached to the company logo.

Markets are turning regional. More deals close between people in the same region, often the same city. Many friends I met at international conferences over the last four years now travel less, have been laid off, or have switched niches.

All this means that relying on your network in the current state of the market is not enough. People around you may earn much more or less than you, and there is no middle wage.

Count the people who'd answer you if your job title or a startup disappeared tomorrow. That's your real network.

A friend's advice: be someone you would want to talk to

People gravitate toward whoever they can understand and describe in one sentence.

"She runs the podcast" or "He built an AI assistant for dog sitters" - that's what people you meet remember about you. Nobody has a sentence for the person who added 200 new contacts on Telegram.

I do positioning, product marketing, and brand strategy to help tech founders talk about their products in a smooth and clear way.

If you're building something and the story isn't landing, slide into my DMs.