I ask for permission to invite them: "I would like to get you to visit my networking team. Would it be ok for me to email you an invitation with details?"

This gets buy-in from them for later, since they've already said 'yes' to me inviting them. The Emory Team is fantastic, so I'm confident that visitors will see the value of the Team once they are in the room. So my focus is on getting over the hurdle of getting visitors into the room. Asking for permission to invite them helps lower that hurdle a bit.

Additionally, as a technology professional, I'm a little more actively aware of SPAM and other unwanted types of email, so asking for permission moves my communication out of the 'unsolicited' category.