Networking - Building Personal Relationships in Business - as part of the expert series by GeoBeats. Small talk is always a challenge for almost everyone. At a business meeting, I do recommend that small talk be kept to a minimum when the meeting is actually on. You may wish to establish a personal relationship, but that takes time. So you establish your credentials first, your honor and integrity, and then you might lead into some personal things. You can ask open-ended question as long as it is not invasive. So you might say, the last time I met you Bill, you and your family were off to Italy for a vacation. Tell me about the highlights. So then he has an open window that he can respond but it is not to invasive. The idea is to have a light conversation but show that you remember the last scenarios and that your going to build gently into more questions. Many questions are inappropriate. It is a open-ended question and if you get asked a question that you really do not want to answer. Could just say, why do you ask.