Networking and Having Fun on DNCruise

Sponsoring of DNCruise

HEXONET is a proud sponsor of Chef Patrick's DNCruise.  Over the next four days, I will touch upon what I saw and did at DNCruise.  Today is about the fantastic networking at the event.

DNCruise - Bon Voyage

For four days, from October 11 - 15, the inaugural sailing of DNCruise, the first ever domain event held on a cruise-liner, took place on the beautiful high seas of the Caribbean.  Some attendees of DNCruise came for the networking.  Other attendees came for the training.  Unexpectedly for everyone though, we walked away having a great deal of fun as well as making resonating friendships.

Networking Over Flip-flops and Long Islands

Going to many different types of technical trade-shows and events for countless number of years, I really found the networking on the DNCruise refreshing and more satisfying.  Meeting new people in one's shorts and a T-shirt forces you to drop your guard.  And as a result, introductions were more genuine and friendly.  Though we all still carried our titles, a new and more important title for the cruise was emerging - DNCruiser!

As a DNCruiser, networking went beyond just asking someone what they did for a living.  The same ritualistic question-and-answer dance that I was accustomed to at trade-shows had to be thrown out the window.  One couldn't simply ask a few questions and then just walk away.  Knowing that you will see these individuals many more times over the course of four days, it became appropriate to ask and be prepared to answer deeper questions.  In the end, every DNCruiser said DNCruise was by far the best networking event they had ever experienced.

Domain Training and Learning on the High Seas

Tomorrow's post will be on what I learned at DNCruise and why some of my shipmates say DNCruise was one of the best training events they have ever been to.