Start with organizations to which you're already connected. Join your college alumni club, appropriate professional organization if there's a chapter in your new city, and get involved in a religious organization.

Jeffrey Doinoff, the director of research at Hahn Capital Management, has always looked up the Ohio State alumni club wherever he's moved. "I met a lot of people watching football games on Saturday afternoon," he says. This tactic proved both fun and useful to him when he was in a management-training program at Mead Paper Corp., which took him to six different U.S. cities during about three years.

If you don't already have some affiliations, look for organizations in your new town.

Another good avenue for leads is your local chamber of commerce. Many chambers sponsor networking and community events. The San Francisco Chamber of Commerce, for example, offers networking groups, a Women in Business roundtable, and lead-generating programs for entrepreneurs.