As you can imagine I'm asked this questions a LOT. It was most recently posed by Chris Garrigues on LinkedIn's new service: LinkedIn Answers.

The short and the long answer to this questions is simply: "It depends."
People network for many different reasons, and there are just as many networking events in Austin. These groups all have different personalities and cultures and some will be a great fit for you, others will not.

First, ask yourself why you want to attend networking meetings? Is it to find more clients? Find a new job? Identify resources to make your business more efficient or grow to the next level? Maybe you're just new to Austin and are looking to make some new friends.

Once you know the why look for the who. Who is it that you want to meet? Prospective new customers, hiring managers, really nice people?

Finally you'll probably want to give some thought to the frequency of meetings. For some a weekly meeting is just too much of a committment, while a monthly meeting would be perfect. For others looking to build deeper relationships a monthly meeting may not be frequent enough.

Unfortunately once you've done all of this ground work the hard work starts. The only real way to know if a group is right for you is to visit a time or two. Once I know what people are looking for I can often make suggestions of groups that 'might' be a good fit. In the end you'll need to check them out for yourself to see if they're right for you.

Another strategy you can get a lot of mileage out of is simply to ask the other networks at the meetings you visit: "What other networking groups do you think are worthwhile?" You'll get a lot of different opinions and suggestions. By asking this type of question you'll be able to learn what may or may not be a good fit for you.

Here's a short list of groups I've visited myself and found to be very good:

For local business owners:
Austin Independent Business Alliance
Bootstrap
Choose Austin First

For women (or really smart men):
eWomen Network
Women's Chamber of Commerce

Technology Related:
Austin Technology Council
TAG - Technology Advisors Group
Texchange

For young professionals:
Catalyst 8
YMBL- Young Men's Business Leage
YWA - Young Women's Alliance

For Christians:
Power Lunch
What Goes Around

Or course there are many more. Most of which you can find on the NetworkInAustin.com Calendar. We've added over 4,000 events for 2007, but still have a lot more work to do. Please check back often.

Happy Networking!

Scott Ingram
NetworkInAustin.com