James, that is precisely the problem with the Web in general today. How do you sift through it and find meaning information that can be turned into actionable intel? The main difference with the blog wave is that the user community plays a larger role now in determining what is important for ranking with associations through social networking and such things as tag clouds instead of keywords and metadata.

On the other hand it is also nice because like networking events at your local Chamber of Commerce you can start a conversion and get input from other experts in the field or meet a potential customer. A Chamber mixer does not always work for some people because they find it hard to meet new folks and start a conversation. Whenever I participate in networking events I work it like a trade show and find it a rather enjoyable distraction from doing customer support all day long.

I also think it would do the commercial real estate professionals well to describe their businesses on this network in terms of their specialties, office environments, and business models. In my line of work I often trade work with other IT friends I network with because you can not always have the right diversified skill set in the office for certain customers. It is probably a very common problem in many businesses today. As a community it is easy to get off topic and talk about everything except your line of business but that is human nature.

James,

Over the years I interact more with professionals, a couple of CRE development companies, enterprise security management consulting and facilities, data centers and more recently working on qualified and validated industrial plant operations. Management Information Systems is still my favored area of work though. It does not matter what area you work, you have to do the marketing.