The Big Picture: You’re there to represent the cause and meet new people, so make your presence felt. This is a great op to step outside of your comfort zone and develop an extremely important skill.

We see great things happen when our team is active in their communities and meeting new people. For one of many examples of how attending events can be so pivotal to the cause, read how one Regional Director’s attendance at a local chamber of commerce meeting landed him in his Congressman’s office for a face-to-face lobbying meeting.

Objective of attending events:

• Raise awareness of the cause and The Borgen Project.
• Connect with people who might be potential allies.
• Educate yourself about specific issues (i.e. hearing a speaker discuss global health).
• To push yourself out of your comfort zone and develop a skill that will profoundly improve your life… talking to strangers.

What to do?

• Arrive early. At events with speakers all networking occurs before and after the event.
• Talk to strangers. Don’t be shy; most people are socially starving and dying to meet new people… That’s probably why they’re at the event to begin with! Introduce yourself. Be friendly. Listen. And that’s all there is to it.

  Easy Icebreakers:

“Hi I’m…(enter your name, a smile and a handshake here).” With that 3-word opener conversations usually pop out of thin air. “Are you from XXX?” is always a safe next question to open up a bigger conversation. “Have you been to XXX (name of group hosting the event) events before?” When in doubt talk about the weather: “Looks like the rain is back.” “It’s good to see the sun is out.” “I was sure feeling that wind on the way over here.”

The Question: Be Borgen Project ready for that infamous and uniquely American question…

Q: “What do you do?”

A: “I’m an ambassador for The Borgen Project; it’s a national campaign that addresses global poverty.”

When attending political events, don’t forget to Bird-Dog!