Kiki L'Italien spends her days focusing on digital branding and growth, but in a talk on networking opportunities, the CEO of Amplified Growth said no digital connection can match the personal feel of a face-to-face conversation.

She told the roughly 30 young attendees at her Emerging Professionals in CRE program during the BOMA International Conference & Expo to make sure they don't circulate with the same small group of people when they go to networking events.

"The more uncomfortable you can make yourself by talking to strangers, the better off you're going to be," Kiki said.

She said the act of networking with strangers has actually been proven to increase cognitive ability and is one of five ways to make yourself learn better, which was welcome news to the group of attendees about to engage in a networking session.

Even though she specializes in digital branding, Kiki touted the value of paper business cards rather than exchanging numbers on cellphones. She then warned against being a "business card dispensary," who shoves their card in someone's hand without having a conversation and then heads for the door.

Following Kiki's talk, the college students and young professionals put her advice to the test, engaging in their own networking session.

Noura Estatie, a master's student at Georgetown who came from Beirut, said some of Kiki's advice seemed contrary to what she got from career counselors. She said counselors stress the importance of being aggressive and talking to as many people as you can, but Kiki emphasized the value of longer, meaningful conversations and warned against being overly aggressive.

Above, Noura (third from right) is pictured with fellow Georgetown master's student Roselynn Lewis, Johns Hopkins master's student Victoria Zhand, Georgetown master's students Karla Butler and Richard Guzman, and one young professional—Samantha Hoyle, who works at Cushman & Wakefield in San Francisco.