At our December NetStorming event we named our first annual Networker of the Year. After you see the stats below you'll understand why we had to start this award this year, and why it was so easy to pick a winner.

This award is about fully embracing all of the elements that make for great networking. Most importantly it's about doing those things consistently over a long period of time, not just going nuts for a couple of months and burning yourself out.

Brad Closson did just that and a lot more in 2010. He attended EVERY NetStorming event last year, and that was just the beginning. He attended a total of 733 meetings over the course of the year. That's an average of 14 meetings every week for 52 weeks. Most importantly 70% of those meetings were one on one meetings, which is where the real networking starts.

In addition to having setting the 1 year networking bar perhaps impossibly high he writes a solid networking blog of his own. It's certainly worth a read, and you'll want to be on the look out for his future book on the topic as well. With this much work on his own networking efforts he absolutely has the authority to be an author on the topic.

When you see Brad please go out of your way to congratulate him. If you know Brad or you've met with Brad you know that he couldn't be more deserving of this award.

Brad Closson is the Networker of the Year!

Happy Networking!