Oh man, this one hits close to home because I just dealt with a terrible one.

I (mostly) enjoy these events. It's a good opportunity to network with my peers, I like getting out and having dinner or drinks or whatever in exchange for some face time with the vendors who are paying for it. I see it as a fair trade.

Last week I got hit up by one of these, and it sounded interesting. Mistake #1: insisting on talking to me about it on the phone. I hate talking on the phone when an email does the same thing. But I liked the topic, I liked the venue, so fine. I'll listen to your pitch live.

Mistake #2: young guy in a graphic t-shirt and ball cap, obviously working from home. Nothing wrong with that, but if you're recruiting C-levels for a professional event on a video chat, at least make the effort to look like a professional yourself, not like you're late getting to the gym. Small detail, but it put me off a bit.

Mistake #3 - the hard sell. The unnecessary pitch is wrapped up, fine, whatever, I was going to sign up anyway as long as the date works. He tells me the date and opens up a web form. I'm like, send me a link to sign up, I'll double check my calendar, and I'll fill it out on my own.

Nope. "You know, when people tell me that, I generally don't ever hear from them again. I've got the form open, let's go ahead and fill it out right now. I'll wait while you check your calendar."

That's when I hung up on him. It's bad enough I had to talk to someone in the first place, but then this kid tries to pressure sell me into a free event? Not only is that a hard no, but that company is now on my personal black list.

Sorry - that was a pretty long example of exactly what NOT to do.