Tiger Beatdown: “Business networking”, career women and “the non-integrated immigrant”

We attend specific trade industry events, conferences and exhibitions or informal after hours get togethers organized by people whose love of networking turn them into de facto evangelizers and matchmakers. We do it because we are told “we have to”. But what are the dynamics of these “networking events” or opportunities? Who gets to participate? Who gets invited? What kind of gender roles do we need to play/ represent in order to consider the event a success for our potential advancement? What kind of class and racial dynamics are at play in these notions of “networking”? How is knowledge shared and whose knowledge is given preeminence?

I answered none of these questions, but when did that stop me from writing long and convoluted posts?