Networking

You go to an event, meet people, collect cards — and then a week passes and the follow-up never gets written. Networking is for that gap: log the event, log the people you met while the conversation is fresh, then answer three short prompts and let CartonCrew draft the follow-up email for you.

Who this is for: anyone with editor access or above. Deleting a contact or an event is restricted to admins.

Enabling Networking

Networking is an extension. Turn it on from the extension catalog (Settings → Extensions). Once enabled, a Networking item appears in the navigation. Every route is gated on the extension, so with it off the module is not just hidden — the API refuses the request.

The AI drafting step additionally needs AI switched on for your organization (Settings → Organization → AI). With AI off the rest of the module works normally: the follow-up window tells you “AI drafting is off” and you can still write the email yourself and use Copy.

The two tabs

The Networking screen has two tabs:

• People — everyone you have met, with search and a filter by event.
• Events — the events themselves.

Logging an event

1. Open Networking and select the Events tab.
2. Click + New event.
3. Fill in the form:
   • Event name (required) — e.g. Nonprofit Tech Expo 2026.
   • Date and Location — optional.
   • Notes — optional; what the event was about.
4. Click Add event.

To change one later, use Edit on the event; the same form reopens titled Edit event and the save button reads Save changes. Delete is admin-only.

Adding someone you met

1. Open the People tab.
2. Click + New contact.
3. Fill in the form:
   • Name (required).
   • Email, Phone, Company, Title, LinkedIn URL — all optional. Phone is formatted as you type.
   • Event — pick the event where you met. The list starts with — No event —, then your events, and ends with + New event…. Choosing + New event… opens a panel right there in the form with New event name (required), Date, and Location, so you can create the event without leaving the contact you are entering.
   • Notes — what you talked about — optional, but worth filling in. This is the field the AI draft draws on later, which is why the form itself says “Helps the AI write a personal follow-up later.”
4. Click Add contact.

Use Search contacts and Filter by event to find someone again.

An email address is not required to save a contact — but you cannot send a follow-up to someone without one. If you try, CartonCrew tells you to add an email to the contact first.

Drafting and sending a follow-up

1. On the People tab, click ✶ Follow up on the contact.
2. The window opens (“Nice to meet you — follow up”) with three prompts:
   • Tone — Warm & personable, Professional & polished, or Casual & light.
   • What did you talk about? — a detail or two from the conversation.
   • What’s the ask / next step? — e.g. grab a coffee, a quick intro call.
3. Click ✶ Draft with AI. CartonCrew writes a Subject and a Body (HTML), which you can edit freely — the draft is a starting point, not a send.
4. Then either:
   • Copy — puts the draft on your clipboard to send from your own mail client; or
   • Send via CartonCrew — sends it as an email from CartonCrew.

The confirmation gate

Send via CartonCrew does not send on the first click. It opens a Confirm before sending panel showing To, From, Reply-To, Subject and an Email preview, and states plainly that this sends a real email to that person. Only Confirm & send actually sends; Back returns you to the draft.

Drafting again with ✶ Draft with AI closes the panel, so a regenerated draft is always re-confirmed before it can go out.

Replies go to your organization’s reply-to address, which the confirmation panel names before you send.