Everyone here at the meetings in Stockholm is talking about the importance of networks. 

While not a new topic for women entrepreneurs, it is more and more discussed as absolutely critical.  Trine Winterø, the former CEO for Symbion, Inc. in Denmark, talked about a program they did for potential women entrepreneurs in which they found the women “very poor” when it came to their networking activities with the financing community.  Katarina Bonde, Managing Director of Kubi Corp LLC in Sweden, suggested we all need an 'MN' - a Masters in Networking.  

I'm loving this conversation because I teach the Intentional Networking section of Babson's Opting In exec ed program for women…. and I'm now taking home with me many more “why” examples to support my “how to” approach.  

While everyone generally agrees in principle as to the importance of networking for starting and growing a business, or for that matter, starting and growing a career, it is more the intentionality that we might pay attention to in building our networks. 

Exercise 1: Sit down and actually think about who is in your network.  That in itself is a major step forward.