Remember the days when networking was fully in-person?
Meetings in the morning and meetings at night. Lunches, coffee meetups and evening mixers. You were “on” all day, dressed, presentable, smiling, making conversation, remembering names, making introductions, and trying to be fully engaged even when you were running on fumes.
And while all of that was happening, you also had responsibilities waiting at home, as well as work deadlines. I think it’s called Life, and I can barely remember what it felt like to network that way now because here we are in the era of Zoom.
Now we can network while while traveling. We can network while sitting at our kitchen table without traffic and without parking. Without a $17 glass of wine, without a babysitter and without the pressure of being “on” in the same way.
And I’m grateful for that, but if we’re being honest, something has changed. Zoom made networking easier, but it also made it flatter.
What Zoom gave us
Let’s start with the positives because there are plenty:
- Networking is more accessible than ever
- You can show up from anywhere
- You can attend more meetings without sacrificing entire days
- It’s easier for introverts and people with packed schedules
- You can still stay connected even when life is chaotic
Zoom has been a gift, especially for business owners, parents, caregivers, and people like me who travel.
And yet…
What we’ve lost in the convenience of “showing up from home”
There’s a reason people still crave in-person connection. There’s a reason retreats, conferences, and live events are thriving again. There’s a reason so many of us feel a little emptier after a Zoom call than we do after an in-person lunch.
Because networking isn’t just an information exchange, it’s an energy exchange.
And here’s what I believe we’ve lost.
1. Real eye contact
On Zoom, it’s impossible to truly make eye contact. If you look at the camera, you’re not looking at the person. If you look at the person, you’re not looking at the camera. It’s a small thing, but it’s not nothing.
Eye contact builds trust. It creates warmth. It communicates attention and sincerity without saying a word. It’s one of the most human things we do and Zoom simply can’t replicate it.
2. Better conversations
Zoom conversations are polite, structured and often rushed.
And because only one person can really talk at a time, we lose the natural rhythm of real conversation. There’s less laughter, less interruption, less spontaneous storytelling, and less “Wait, tell me more about that!”
In person, you can lean in and read body language. You can catch the spark when someone is excited and you can feel when someone is holding back.
On Zoom, we get the words, but we miss the magic.
3. The sidebars, coffee before and after
This one might be the biggest loss of all.
Some of the best networking doesn’t happen during the meeting. It happens before the meeting starts, when you’re standing near the coffee station. It happens after, when you’re walking out together. It happens when someone says, “Wait, you do that? I have someone you need to meet.”
Zoom has no hallway, no parking lot conversation or accidental connection and those accidental connections are often where the real business comes from.
4. The excitement of visiting a new location
There was something special about walking into a new place, a restaurant, a hotel lobby, a coworking space, a venue and feeling the buzz of possibility.
New surroundings bring fresh energy and shake you out of routine. They remind you that your business is part of something bigger than your laptop screen.
Zoom is efficient, but it’s not an experience.
5. The basic human need to be with people
At the end of the day, we’re not built to do life alone. Even the most independent among us still need community.
We need laughter across a table and we need a hug when we haven’t seen someone in a while. We need to feel like we belong in a room full of people who get it.
Zoom can keep us connected, but it can’t fully feed the human need for real presence.
So what do we do now?
I don’t believe the answer is “go back.”
Life and business has changed, and many of us don’t want to go back to the exhausting grind of constant in-person events.
But I do believe we need to be intentional. We can embrace Zoom for convenience, especially when we’re away (like me right now!).
And we can still make room for in-person connection when it matters most, because networking isn’t just about visibility, it’s about belonging.
And that’s something no screen can fully replace.