I’ve seen a rash of thought-expert pieces lately on the art of networking. Some of them are quite smart, like this piece on double-opt-in email introductions that I begrudgingly loved, or this one on getting to the point from Startup Factory’s Chris Heivly.

Others are straight garbage. Not naming names.

I say “begrudgingly loved” about the former because I’m not a huge fan of people telling other people how to behave, especially when it comes to etiquette in the entrepreneurial pursuits. We’re a breed of “it’s better to ask forgiveness than permission” — yet we still get all huffed when someone wants to get on our calendars without having jumped through the proper hoops.

Yeah, I know there’s etiquette to this game, and I know there’s a fine line between aggressive and douchebag. I’m also aware of the fact that being on the receiving end of everyone’s meeting request is a hassle. I get about two dozen cold business emails a day and another handful of cold networking type emails on top of that. Whatever. First world problems.

One of the reasons I started ExitEvent was to give all entrepreneurs, from beginner to serial, a chance to network amongst themselves unshackled from topic, cause, or sponsor, either online or in person via the Startup Social.

But the Social, the monthly agenda-free, entrepreneur-and-investor-only, free-beer-fueled event, was never about networking. In that I mean it was never about collecting business cards and writing awkward follow-up emails the next day.

It was and still is about relationships.

The full post can be read at ExitEvent.

Note: ExitEvent is a news partner of WRAL TechWire.