Today, Plus3 Ireland returned to Griffith College for the very first guest lecture of the program. Rob Cullen, the most well-networked man in the city, shared with us a little about how to network and why it matters for both businesses and individuals. Rob emphasized that it was not what you know or even who you know, but who knows you. Another twist on a common business idiom was that it was not knowledge that is power, but acting upon that accumulated knowledge and actually doing things. As for his techniques, they were applicable even to Americans like us. Consider the different positionings of groups. There is the loner, who a hungry networker will likely approach at some point, at least out of pity. There are the duos and foursomes, who can open or close themselves off to the rest of the party by changing their relative position and expanding or shrinking the angle of the largest blank space. Most applicable of all is the phrase, “can I join in?” to end your networking isolation. During lunch, by contrast, I encountered a particularly Irish turn-of-phrase. My ham focaccia sandwich was listed on the receipt as a €9.00 “MEAT SAMBO.” This racial slur has been levied against a variety of ethnicities, including Africans, Indians, mixed-race folk, and, in Ireland, sandwiches. After that salty midday meal, we headed to Auxillion. Bookended by a rainy journey to a terminal bus stop, Auxillion gave us food for our stomachs and minds as they celebrated their 25th anniversary. In discussing their operations, a few mentions of Microsoft made it clear how many “tech” businesses survive – operating somewhere between the titans of the industry and the customers. If the first party services from Google and Microsoft are too pricey, but hitting F1 is too cryptic, then a firm like Auxillion can step in.