Need a network?

Two tin cans and a piece of string; what a relief when the telephone arrived — which must be one of the great networking tools. Having good 'networking skills' is helpful but you have got to get together with people in the first place to put them into practice. Having invented the telephone (well two of them presumably) Alexander Graham Bell apparently picked up his phone and spoke to his assistant in the next room saying 'Mr Watson please come here I want to see you'. What was said next?

Times — and modes of communication — have moved on and today Messrs Bell and Watson would be fascinated by mobile phones and e-mail but these are still ways of bringing people together.

And potentially every time people get together a professional network is formed with the possibility of it being...