Networking through social events, social media sites and business associations is key to developing and maintaining business relationships.

Last week, the Arizona Technology Council and Business Marketing Association (BMA) joined forces to put on the Marketing Technology Summit in Phoenix. We participated in this event with our strategic partner, Loop Demand Gen.

This regional, summit-style event allowed Loop to network with marketing professionals in the tech industry, and learn more about their pain points. In comparison to a larger, all-out national tradeshow, the Marketing Technology Summit provided an inexpensive alternative and enabled us to showcase Loop’s services to a very targeted niche audience. Plus, we learned a thing or two by talking face-to-face with the attendees. There’s certainly demand for qualifying, nurturing, scoring and developing high-quality business leads.

Be sure to look out for the 2010 Marketing Technology Summit next year and remember, you can never network enough and you certainly never stop learning.

What trends have you noticed when attending networking events?