This is where it gets confusing.

Here are some of the strange things that I have recently observed:

1. Large groups of employees from the same company sitting together. This is of course acceptable at an awards ceremony when the purpose is celebrating the team. It's downright weird anywhere else.

2. People who sit down and begin eating during the networking portion of the event.

3. People who come late or leave early, leaving themselves no time to meet anyone.

4. People whose conversation skills and demeanor send the message: "I couldn't care less about you".

All of the above defeat the purpose of sending people to events in the first place. Presumably the business incurs the expense of these excursions with the idea of flying the flag, making positive impressions, establishing new relationships and sometimes even setting appointments with qualified prospects.

Some salespeople (but fewer than one might imagine) know how to do these things. Almost none of the non-sales employees have a clue.

Everyone who ventures forth into the world of reworking represents the company that they work for. They make impressions for better or worse. Indeed, each and every employee has the opportunity to bird dog for new customers. Often the non-salespeople can be better at this than the salespeople because they are less threatening. In these difficult economic times it's a sin that these opportunities are so often wasted because people don't know that it's part of their job (it had better be) or they don't know how to do it. It's cheap and easy to teach non-salespeople to be effective networkers and feed your company a much needed supply of leads. They don't have to sell. All they have to do is sniff out opportunities and offer to make the appropriate introductions or identify the right people to call.
 
Since you're paying for them to represent your company at these events, the training you do to make them effective will likely be some of the best money you ever spend.