Networking

In a wood-panelled club room packed with grey-haired executives trading confident handshakes, Gerald takes a nervous young protégé in thick glasses under his wing and explains that the room is a sea of businessmen and the game is networking. He warns him to stay cool rather than try too hard, then introduces him to Tony, an unflappable operator who offers only the vaguest encouragement before announcing he will stand a few feet away. A summoned contact named Kutzka never bothers to come over, yet Gerald insists that merely being seen can only help. Finally the eager Gerry rushes up having heard the newcomer is suddenly hot, hands over a business card, and bonds with him over local sports teams and the one thing still as good as it used to be, until the whole room closes in on the self-declared hot guy.