How to Become The Most Annoying Person at Every Tech Event

0:00This audio is presented by Hacker Noon, where anyone can learn anything about any technology. How to Become the Most Annoying Person at Every Tech Event by Dariya Volkava. Networking Advice teaches you to be proactive, follow it, and you'll fly to New York or Paris, spend about $5,000 chasing headliners and collecting business cards, and fly home with a contact list of strangers who'd rather never see you again. Skin in the game, I also tried to follow those popular networking rules. Four, five years ago, I moved from Ukraine to the European Union, fleeing the cruel, ongoing war started by Russia, and had to rebuild my professional and personal circles from zero. I was moving from Tratfai and crypto into Web 3 and broader tech, spaces still walled off by tight communities. Everyone seemed to know each other from some side events you missed. So I showed up, but my first steps sometimes were chaotic. I had to clarify how to act and read non-verbal signals. In some situations, I could be even annoying or out of context.

1:00Later, I fixed the way I built my network. I spoke at conferences, launched the Decentralized Voices podcast, co-founded Decent Wealth for Privacy Pilled Investors, co-organized five blockchain and AI-focused events, and led the Sheffi chapter. You can go deeper on that story by watching the video about building relationships in global tech. This year alone, I've been to about 30 tech meetups and conferences, and I watch the same three networking rules backfire at almost everyone. Here they are a, let me know if I missed anything. Three stupid networking rules and what works instead. These observations apply to any tech-focused niche, where personal relationships are as important as speed of decision-making. Rule one. Be always ready to pitch. The advice to always have your elevator pitch ready is good, really. The problem appears when the timing is weird. I often see people who try not just to explain what they do, but act like they're on the shark tank show while they're on the dance floor at the conference after party, or they see a potential customer in a queue at the airport.

2:02Most likely, a person will nod politely, scan the room, and look for an excuse to disappear. Instead of pitching no matter what, led with genuine curiosity. Ask what the yard currently working on or what's happening in their country. Then, listen, they will remember how interested you were in their work far longer than they will remember your pitch. Save your story for when they ask. If the vibe is right, they always will. The follow-up within 24 hours rule has the same timing problem. Picture web summit. 70,000 attendees. 3000 startups. And hundreds of VCs. A founder working a booth pitches from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. then spends the evening at a partner dinner or collapses in the hotel. Four days in a row. By the time they reach the gate at Lisbon Airport, 40 messages on LinkedIn and X say, great to meet you at web summit. Left on read, then archived. Follow up when you have a high context reason. Send a one-line message three weeks later linking a topic or market shift you discussed. Late and highly specific always beats fast and generic.

3:05Rule two. Work the room. The CEO of a hype AI startup finishes his talk, and within 90 seconds a crowd off 30 forms at the side of the stage. Fones up, badges swinging, everyone angling for the same selfie. You get yours, but by the time you posted with a, we're cooking, caption, he's forgotten your face. Then you go, work, the rest of the room. Every conversation lasts four minutes. Halfway through each one, you're reading the badge of the person behind whoever you're talking to. You send 25 LinkedIn requests, and half of them never get accepted. Meanwhile, 20 meters away by the coffee station, an engineer who spoke on a panel stands alone with a flat white. Nobody's queuing for them. They have a strong opinions about the AI will kill us, debate, and nobody to argue with. That conversation can turn into a job offer, a podcast episode, or an intro to the VC backing their company. At web summit's 2025 opening night, Patty Cosgrave reminded the crowd that Revolut first showed up 10 years earlier as a three-person startup with a tiny stand.

4:09Now it's Europe's most valuable private tech company. Back then, talking to its founders cost a walk across the hall. Today it costs a spot in the queue. Rule three. Your network is your net worth. People take this one at face value and start counting. 4,000 linked in connections, a telegram with 100 plus muted group chats. By the end of September 2026, layoffs. FYI had logged almost 130,000 tech layoffs at 310 companies, already more than in all of 2025. Many of those people found out that half their network was attached to the company logo. Markets are turning regional, more deals close between people in the same region, often the same city. Many friends I met at international conference over the last four years now travel less, have been laid off, or have switched niches. All this means that relying on your network in the current state of the merquette is not enough. People around you may earn much more or less than you, and there is no middle wage. Count the people who'd answer you if your job title or a startup disappeared tomorrow.

5:12That's your real network, a friend's advice. Be someone you would want to talk to. People gravitate toward whoever they can understand and describe in one sentence. She runs the podcast, or he built an AI assistant for dog sitters. That's what people you meet remember about you. Nobody has a sentence for the person who added 200 new contacts on telegram and treats a conversation like a vending machine. I do positioning, product marketing, and brand strategy to help tech founders talk about their products in a smooth and clear way. Growing hard like this article, follow me on X, LinkedIn, and YouTube. Speech balloon have a story to share or want to add your networking rules for tech founders. Let me know in the comments. Thank you for listening to this Hackernoon story, read by Artificial Intelligence. Visit Hackernoon.com to read, write, learn and publish.