How to Follow Up After a Networking Event (2026 Guide)

George El-Hage 🔗 LinkedIn

Founder, Wave Connect | 1M+ digital business cards shared via Wave

I've attended hundreds of conferences, trade shows, and networking events since 2020. This guide is based on what I've learned following up with thousands of contacts - including the mistakes that cost me real deals.

How to follow up after a networking event is the question that separates people who build real business relationships from people who collect business cards that end up in a desk drawer. You went to the event, shook hands, had good conversations - and now what?

I've been building Wave Connect since 2020, and I've watched this pattern play out thousands of times: someone has a great conversation at a trade show, means to follow up, and then... nothing. A week passes. Two weeks. The moment's gone. In this guide, I'll share the exact follow-up system I use - including email templates, LinkedIn tactics, and how to track everything so nobody falls through the cracks.

Why Follow-Up Makes or Breaks Your Networking ROI

Networking events are investments - your entry fee, travel, and hours of your time - and follow-up is where the return actually happens. Without follow-up, every handshake and conversation is just a pleasant memory. The contacts you make at conferences, trade shows, and mixers only become relationships, partnerships, or deals when you put in the work afterward.

Here's what I've noticed over the years: the people who are best at networking aren't always the most charismatic people in the room. They're the ones who follow up consistently. I've lost count of the conversations I had early on where I thought "we really clicked" and then... I didn't follow up fast enough, and the window closed. That mistake taught me the hard way.

According to MindTools, effective follow-up is the single most important step in the networking process. It's not the event itself - it's what you do after.

The 24-48 Hour Rule: When to Send Your First Follow-Up

Send your first follow-up message within 24-48 hours of meeting someone at a networking event. This is the sweet spot - long enough to not seem desperate, but soon enough that the person still remembers you and the conversation. After 48 hours, recall drops fast. After a week? You're basically a stranger again.

But here's the thing most people get wrong: they wait until they get home, settle back into their routine, and suddenly it's Thursday. The event was Monday. The moment is gone.

My system? I block 30 minutes the morning after every event specifically for follow-ups. No excuses, no "I'll do it later." If I was at a trade show, I'm writing emails in the hotel before checkout. It's that important.

What to Do Immediately After the Event

Before you even think about writing emails, do this:

1. Organize your contacts: Sort them into hot (definitely want to continue this conversation), warm (worth a follow-up), and cool (nice to meet, low priority).
2. Add notes: What did you talk about? What did they need? What did you promise to send? Do this while it's fresh - even voice memos on your phone work.
3. Prioritize: Start your follow-ups with the hot contacts. Don't spend an hour crafting the perfect email for a cool lead while your hottest prospect forgets you.

If you exchanged info through a digital business card, you've already skipped the manual data entry. Your contact's details are saved, and you can add notes and tags right at the point of exchange - which saves a huge amount of time when you're sorting through 30+ contacts.

4 Follow-Up Email Templates That Actually Get Responses

The best follow-up emails are short, personal, and include a clear next step. Nobody wants to read a three-paragraph email from someone they met for five minutes. Get in, reference the conversation, and give them an easy way to respond.

Here are four templates I've used (and refined) over hundreds of events. Steal them, tweak them, make them yours.

Template 1: The General Follow-Up

Use when: You had a good conversation but no specific next step was discussed.

Template 2: The Value-Add Follow-Up

Use when: They mentioned a problem you can help with, or you promised to send something.

Template 3: The Meeting Request

Use when: You discussed a potential collaboration, partnership, or deal.

Template 4: The Warm Re-Engagement (No Response)

Use when: You followed up once but didn't hear back. Wait at least a week before sending this.

Notice what all four templates have in common: they're short, they reference something specific, and they include a clear call-to-action. That's the formula. You can also streamline your lead capture at trade shows so you have better data to personalize these messages.

LinkedIn Follow-Up Strategy: Beyond the Connection Request

LinkedIn is your best secondary follow-up channel, but it should complement your email - not replace it. Sending a LinkedIn connection request without an email first feels passive. Email says "I'm serious about this." LinkedIn says "I want to stay connected."

Here's the sequence I use:

1. Day 1: Send your follow-up email (using one of the templates above).
2. Day 1-2: Send a LinkedIn connection request with a personalized note: "Great meeting you at [Event] - just sent you an email. Looking forward to staying connected!"
3. Week 1-2: Engage with their LinkedIn content. Like a post, leave a thoughtful comment. Don't just click the thumbs-up - write something that shows you actually read it.
4. Ongoing: Share their content occasionally. Tag them in relevant posts. This keeps you visible without filling their inbox.

One thing to avoid: don't send a LinkedIn InMail AND an email AND a text message all within 24 hours. That's not persistence - that's overwhelming. Pick your primary channel (email) and let LinkedIn serve as the relationship-maintenance layer.

Using Digital Business Cards to Automate Your Follow-Up Workflow

Digital business cards eliminate the biggest bottleneck in post-event follow-up: getting contacts into a system you can actually use. With paper cards, you've got a stack on your desk that needs to be manually typed into your phone, CRM, or spreadsheet. Half the time, you can't read the handwriting. By the time you've entered them all, the 48-hour window is gone.

Here's how I use Wave Connect to shortcut the whole process:

• Contact auto-save: When someone taps my NFC card or scans my QR code, their info is captured instantly. No typing, no lost cards.
• Notes and tags at point of exchange: I can tag someone as "hot lead," "partnership," or "mentor" right when we meet - not three days later when I've forgotten the context.
• Embedded calendar link: My digital card includes a "Book a Meeting" button. Some people click it at the event, which means I don't even need to follow up for the meeting - it's already booked.
• CRM export: I export contacts to HubSpot for team-wide follow-up. No duplicate outreach, no missed leads.

If you're managing a team that attends events, this is even more important. You can't have five reps manually entering contacts into five different spreadsheets. A centralized system means your team manages connections together instead of in silos.

The Follow-Up Cadence: How Many Times Should You Reach Out?

Follow up 3-4 times before moving on, with increasing gaps between each message. Most people send one email, get no response, and give up. That's a mistake. People are busy. Your email might have landed during a meeting, got buried under 50 others, or they just forgot to reply. Persistence isn't annoying - giving up after one try is leaving opportunity on the table.

Here's the cadence I recommend:

1. Touch 1 (Day 1-2): Initial follow-up email + LinkedIn connection request
2. Touch 2 (Day 7-10): Gentle follow-up if no response (use Template 4 above)
3. Touch 3 (Day 18-21): Value-add email - share an article, resource, or event they'd find useful
4. Touch 4 (Day 30): Final check-in. Keep it light: "No pressure at all - just wanted to leave the door open."

After four touches with no response? Move on. Don't take it personally. Some people just aren't responsive to email, or the timing isn't right. Keep them on LinkedIn and revisit in a few months.

If you're using a personal CRM, you can set reminders for each touch so you're not trying to remember who you emailed and when. That's how things fall through the cracks.

5 Follow-Up Mistakes That Kill Your Response Rate

The most damaging follow-up mistakes aren't about what you say - they're about what you don't do, or when you do it. I've made most of these myself, so learn from my failures.

1. Sending a generic "Great meeting you!" message. If your email could've been written without actually meeting the person, it's too generic. Reference something specific from your conversation - even one detail makes a huge difference.
2. Waiting too long. After 48 hours, you're fighting an uphill battle. After a week, you're essentially cold-emailing someone who sort of remembers your face. I know it feels like you need the "perfect" message, but a good email sent fast beats a perfect email sent late.
3. No clear call-to-action. "Let's stay in touch" is not a call-to-action. "Would you have 15 minutes for a call next Tuesday?" is. Give them something specific to say yes or no to.
4. Being too aggressive. Sending an email, a LinkedIn message, a text, AND an InMail on the same day is too much. 😬 Space out your touchpoints across channels and days.
5. Forgetting to deliver on promises. If you told someone "I'll send you that article" or "I'll intro you to my contact" - do it. Failing to follow through on a promise is worse than not following up at all. It actively damages trust.

The good news? If you're reading this guide, you're already ahead of most people. Want to make an even stronger impression at the event itself? Check out our guide on how to stand out at networking events - preparation and follow-up work together.

How to Track and Measure Follow-Up Success

If you're not tracking your follow-ups, you're guessing - and you will forget someone important. It doesn't need to be complicated. Even a simple spreadsheet with columns for name, company, date contacted, response status, and next step will keep you organized.

Here's what I track after every event:

• Contact name and company
• Where we met (which event, which session)
• What we discussed (one-line summary)
• Follow-up status (sent, responded, meeting booked, no response)
• Next action date (when to follow up again)

If you're attending events regularly, a spreadsheet gets messy fast. That's where a CRM comes in. HubSpot's free CRM is solid for individual use. For teams, Wave Connect's built-in contact management lets you tag, note, and export contacts without switching between apps.

One metric that's especially useful: your response rate by timing. After a few events, you'll start to see exactly how much response rate drops when you wait 3 days vs. 1 day. That data will cure any procrastination around follow-ups.

Beyond the First Email: Maintaining Long-Term Relationships

The initial follow-up opens the door, but long-term relationship maintenance is what turns contacts into collaborators, clients, and friends. Not every networking connection needs to become a deal. Some of the most valuable relationships I've built from events have been people who referred business to me years later.

My approach to staying on people's radar without being annoying:

• Quarterly check-ins: A simple "Hey, saw [their company] just launched [thing] - congrats!" goes a long way. No ask, just acknowledgment.
• Share relevant content: If you see an article they'd find useful, send it with a one-line note. Takes 30 seconds, builds goodwill.
• The 3-to-1 rule: For every one thing you ask for, give three things first - whether that's introductions, advice, or resources.
• Celebrate their milestones: Promotions, work anniversaries, company wins. LinkedIn makes this easy - just actually do it instead of scrolling past.

This is where having all your contacts in one place really pays off. If you've been using digital business cards at events, you've already built a searchable database of everyone you've met. That makes it easy to go back and reconnect months later with full context.