People who learn to network successfully are prized in the job market. Networking is not only about building relationships; we want to be leaving every interaction or conversation with the other person thinking ‘What an interesting person!’. Your sense of humour can make you memorable. But is it working at its best for social situations where you need to interact with guests you don’t know?

Fortunately, there are practical ideas we can engage with to learn how to use humour to build real connections in a networking context.

What will I learn?

How to network with humour teaches us:

• To feel comfortable “working a room”

• To interact with guests who have nothing in common with you

• Top strategies to create meaningful connections

• Tips to supercharge your sense of humour for social situations

Vanessa Marcie

Dr Vanessa Marcié is the founder and CEO of Leading With Humour, an innovative consulting firm that helps executives to harness the power of humour in their change management strategies.

She is a forerunner and initiator of theories of driving changethrough humour and is sought and supported by many actors like Linkedin, Inmarsat, BPI France, Qwant.

As an international keynote speaker and researcher, she is regularly invited to present in large companies, international conferences, universities and start-ups in Europe and the US. She is a guest lecturer for some top business schools: Cambridge Judge Business School, HEC Paris, Toulouse Business School and Edhec Business School.

Her research work on Humour and Leadership has been published in the Financial Times and The European Business Review. She is a regular contributor to the French economic newspaper La Tribune and Harvard Business Review France.

Vanessa is a Cambridge Wo + Men’s Leadership Center Associate and in 2019, She was nominated as a Fellow by the Institute of Innovation and Knowledge

Exchange (IKE Institute) in recognition of her research in innovation with Leading With

Humour. She is also a finalist of the 2019 PWN Global Gender Balanced Leadership

Awards which recognize excellence in research for gender-balanced leadership.

She is also a seasoned professional with more than 20 years of experience in the areas of communication, marketing and business development, including as Vice President for London and Partners, the Mayor’s promotion agency in London.

Vanessa Marcié has been selected to be one of the TEDx ESADE 2021 and TEDx Cambridge University 2021 speakers.

She is a stand-up comedian who has created two comedy clubs, one in London and one in Cannes, scenes on which she regularly performs.