The 27 dinner of January 2007 has come and gone. I am sure that many people will be talking about how great it was to meet everyone, and it was. I must admit that I will not be talking about that aspect of the meet and greet.

I was blown out of the water by the caliber of person that I came in to contact with. Not the caliber of personality, or personable person, but the quality of the business minds that I was surrounded by. I was and still am astonished by the networking that these individuals do and force you to do.

Anyone who ridicules the web addicts for being "geeks", "nerds" or any other term that they think is derogatory do so at their own peril and that of their business. These people are a force to be reckoned with and I am glad that I am sitting on the right side of the fence.

I need to explain why I was so impressed: Network, Network, Network (not chillibeanchillibeanchillibean). I have never seen any group of people so shamelessly and successfully market themselves. Everyone wanted a piece of everyone else's pie. If there was no pie left people suggested backing a new pie with greater synergy between their two pie making organisations and a new pie was born and chopped up and spread around.

Moving away from the geek side of things I must impress on people reading this that I value networking as a successful and useful tool to seek employment. Do not overestimate the value of a degree or underestimate the value of who you know (or who your father's best friends daughters boyfriend knows). These people will like you when they get to know you and when they like you they will more often than not try to help you out in one way or another. Make use of the connections that are out there.