The place was wild: 100 hardtech and climatetech startups all working on their innovations under one roof. Lab spaces, prototyping spaces, community, and constant building were the norm. I had never been surrounded by so many smart and driven humans before. It was a phenomenally inspiring place.

Being immersed in that kind of energy taught me that innovation doesn’t just come from great ideas; it requires constant connection. Everyone knew that the next conversation might spark the next breakthrough.

I moved back to the UK after four years in the US and I was struck by the difference in the speed of business between both countries. Despite London having great talent and IP emerging from top universities, we were moving so much slower than Boston and California.

There were many reasons for this of course, but two things stood out to me. First, we were missing a strong convening power able to consistently bring together the ecosystem and facilitate connections across climate tech.

Second, and perhaps unsurprisingly, British culture holds us back from forging the connections that could push our work forwards. If you’ve worked with Americans, you will probably have experienced their often gregarious and go-getter outgoing nature. In the UK, we’re often held back by the cultural phenomenon of ‘politeness’. Instead of joining a conversation, we tend to avoid it so as to not bother people, and we tend to downplay our work and achievements.

It became clear to me that this wasn’t about a lack of capability, but was about a lack of confidence. The good news is, this is something we can change with a few simple shifts in how we approach connection.

First, people should move away from asking fact-based questions to asking more personal questions. The absolute worst thing you can say when you meet someone for the first time at a networking event is ‘what do you do?’. It makes the conversation completely transactional because what you’re really asking is ‘are you useful to me?’. You’re not going to form any real and lasting connections that way, and it will turn you and everyone you’ve spoken to into a LinkedIn connection you’ve forgotten about by 9am the next day.

Instead, ask questions about the person, such as ‘what do you love about what you do?’ or ‘what are you most excited about in your job?’. You find out the exact same information, but you also form a connection with the person and have a much more enjoyable conversation.

The same principle applies to the events themselves. It’s hard to explain the magic of meaningful networking until people experience it for themselves. The truth is, so many events, across climate and beyond, are just ... not very good. Conferences are often too big and impersonal to spark real connection. Casual pub meetups tend to be too unstructured to be meaningful. And VIP dinners? You end up seated next to the same person for three hours, learning their life story while missing everyone else in the room.

On top of that, attention spans are shrinking. I can’t count the number of events I’ve attended where half the room is staring at their phones or buried in their laptops while a panellist speaks. It’s such a missed opportunity for real engagement.

That’s why we are so intentional with our design. We create a warm, enthusiastic and welcoming atmosphere. No one gets more than 10 minutes to speak, no matter how senior they are, and we curate specific conversation prompts that get attendees talking and thinking.

British startup culture is unique and incredibly innovative, but our politeness holds us back. This is so easily fixed though. Attendees can instantly make more impactful connections by asking the right questions. Organisers can have more people coming back to their events by designing them in a way to facilitate more of these questions, rather than getting everyone in the same room and hoping for the best.

Our American counterparts know this better than anyone. Let’s take a page out of their book.