As a recruiter, Industry meetups are an incredible opportunity. At their best, they’re a great opportunity to meet candidates and exciting clients. At their worst, industry meetups are a great way to see which of the two beers on offer I prefer (hint: It’s Peroni).

While as a recruiter it can be frustrating attending meetup after meetup with no clear outcome, to those of you out there who are the doubters I have one word – “hustle”. Industry meetups are one of the best (and sometimes only way) to find the right client for your role. Before you go gathering your pitchforks and blurt out “but online is the only one that works”, hear me out. Trust me, if you do the meetup right you’ll never have to resort to the “Hail Mary Pass” that is going online.

I’m sure we’ve all heard stories of recruiters who, off the back of only a single recruitment meetup were able to get 3, or even 5 candidates through referrals. Boy do I have a story for you.

A friend of mine who is now a recruitment manager, (let’s call him Chad) tells this story whenever anybody mentions meetups being a waste of time. Chad was a great guy, and he was incredibly good at finding ways to talk to the roles he was hiring for. Off the back of a single conversation at one meetup around general small talk involving beer, Chad was able to create a great connection. He brought up the roles he was recruiting for, and the candidate applied. The next week, the candidate referred his friend, who then told a few of his family members, who then told their friends in the industry, and so on and so forth. Chad filled a total of 26 roles for 3 different companies. Whole project teams were spun from Chad’s one connection, and from that point on he was a recruitment superstar.

Though this may not be the most common story, it is not uncommon. The right connection, or the right spark with the right person can create a huge difference to your recruiting profile. Meetups are personal, creating connections almost instantly.

Meetups are a great way to have fun in the role, because they give you a rare opportunity to see potential candidates with their guards down. In saying that, as a recruiter we are more likely to have our guards down too. The best recruiters I’ve seen go to meetups with the idea to simply have fun. If they end up bringing up what they are recruiting for, then all well and good.

The idea of meetups is to have no pressure, but to care about candidates and have them care about you in return. Once this kind of rapport is established, it’s very rare to get burned by candidates if they know you on a personal level.

Of course, meetups aren’t just all fun and games. As recruiters, we have a duty to put client’s roles out there, and to establish connections with candidates. There may be free booze, but meetups are far more than that.