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More Than Your Business Cards

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more than your business card

I attended my first Allume conference two years ago. I was as nervous as a hummingbird! A few weeks before the festivities were to begin, I started to notice Allume peeps tweeting about the cute business cards they were bringing to the conference.

What? I began to panic. I didn’t have these things called “business cards”.

I quickly asked a designer friend to whip me up something and we rushed it to Overnight Prints. Like magic, I suddenly became the proud owner of business cards. But, I have to admit I was still wondering what I was actually going to do with them. I was pretty sure I would be returning home with the whole box.

Boy was I wrong! As I sat down the first night with a table full of women I did not know, one lady spoke up and said,

“Let the business card passing begin!”

It was like she sounded a trumpet! Everyone grabbed a stack of their cards and started passing to their right. As the cards went by you grabbed one of each. Wow! I suddenly now had other people’s business cards. This ritual occurred probably five times a day. By the time I got home I had over 100 business cards. In fact, I still have them. They sit in a stack on my desk along with my stack from last year.

I do enjoy looking at the way people visually represent themselves and their brand, I do enjoy having email addresses of people I connect with easily accessible, and I do enjoy having something to use as a distraction when I am sitting by myself and not sure what to do. But do you know what I enjoy more than a 3” x 2.5” piece of heavy weight paper with a picture on it?

  • I enjoy actually getting to know the people at my right and left at meals.
  • I enjoy having conversations about where people are from.
  • I enjoy discovering how and why people started blogging.
  • More than anything I enjoy listening to hopes and dreams inside the women around me.

Each year I go home from Allume with my new stash of business cards but what stays with me and makes me want to keeping coming back to Allume each year are not the cute business cards, it is the relationship building. It is impromptu mentoring sessions, the brainstorming breakfasts, the tears in the DaySpring lounge, the kindred spirits you discover, the challenge to be brave, the reminder to choose God 1st, family second, and blogging somewhere way down on the list, the opportunity to worship without distraction, the prayer, prayer, and more prayer.

So this year bring your cute business cards, but plan on being more than your card. Plan on being a conversation starter, relationship builder, and light to those around you.

With Joy, Carey C. Bailey from Cravings: desiring God in the midst of motherhood

 

Comments

  4. Oh fun! I actually put all of my cards from last year into a cute scrapbook along with some of my momentos from the weekend (NOTE: I am NOT a scrapbooker!) I just used a SMASH book and it is so cool to look back on those memories. Thanks for sharing!!

    • @DebiStangeland:disqus – Great idea to make a memory book out of it all! Most people are more organized about all the card they collect than me. 😉

  6. Love this. When I’ve gone to events I think I have stressed out about having the “perfect” cards and not thinking about how to make geniune connections with the people I meet. Thanks for this beautiful reminder.

    • Laila – It is so easy for the little things to get in our way of our bigger connection moments. Thanks for coming over and saying “hi!”

  7. I’m just getting caught up on my Allume posts and love this. I will be a newbie this year and am excitedly nervous. Your post made me feel so much better. I don’t have business cards yet but I know now that I’ll be loved regardless. Thank you for sharing!

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  9. Oh I love this! I am an Allume newbie this year and all this talk of business cards and binders and elevator speeches – oh my? I picked a template and ordered my cards in a rush (I know – it’s only July – but still?) and I got them and while they turned out great – I am wishing I would have taken a bit more time… not stressed out and just picked a design I liked – but took the time to design them myself. Still – this post reminded me – the business card is simply an open door… an invitation in. Thanks for that!

  10. This is so great, Carey! Yes, the “what to bring” items are important, especially so we can reconnect with those we met InRL at the conference. But you bring us back right where our hearts and minds really need to be as we walk through those doors at Allume.

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