Networking in my new city

Santiago….it’s big, it’s unknown and it speaks a foreign language. Also, it does the latter in an notoriously fast way using lots of Chilean specific words. In fact Sid, my solo local friend, sent me a crib sheet with so called Chilenismos (Chilean Slangs)….hmmm rather worrying.

Not speaking the local language really isolates a newcomer so…..Chilean Spanish I must conquer you soon but firstly lets build a social network here to help me integrate and connect with local startups, opportunities and fun activities.

I’m using a number of different channels to do this including Facebook, Internations, friends of friends (good old face-to-face way), Foursquare, Meetup and a A Small World. Let me tell you a bit about the three I found most useful:

Facebook

I found that there is a number of ways to leverage this global social network.

1. Message friends that have roots in Chile
2. Write status updates to let people know I am are here which may lead to someone being referred to me or one of my friends actually being in Santiago and
3. Join facebook groups related to Santiago or other fields/activities I am interested in such as Startup Chile.

Internations

This social network is proving itself indespensible to me in so many ways including flat hunting, finding a bicycle to buy and connecting with expats. Two key features:

1. There is a powerful member search function in Internations that allows one to search members by profession, education, residence and origin. For instance, I connected with Simon Forgacs, a Hungarian who is here being funded by SUP Chile to startup Kipu Linguas (an online education platform).
2. This platform has lists of local expat groups such as A Horseback Riding group which I joined and will go horseback riding with this Sunday. I can’t wait!

Meetup.com

I cannot emphasise enough how amazing this site is. This platform provides access to tons of meetup groups which meet for a wide variety of reasons. In London there are thousands of meetup groups ranging from tech to cupcake baking groups. In Santiago I joined a couple of tech meetups which will hopefully get me integrated into the local startup scene.

So far I am attending a Startup Chile event (using Meetup), a horseback riding day (using Internations) and I’ve connected and arranged to have coffee with 4 people in the coming days (using various social networks). Should be a fun week 🙂

Thanks for reading 🙂

Related articles

• Flying to Santiago – the beginning of a new chapter (miklosgrofblog.wordpress.com)
• Time to find a flat! (miklosgrofblog.wordpress.com)