Networking for IB internship

Hi all. I'm currently a student at a top 10 US university hoping to get an IB internship for next summer. The issue, however, is that due to a mix of personal circumstances, I haven't been able to do much networking so far. So, I was wondering if there's any point to starting now (2-3 months in advance), and if there is, what angle I should take to contacts? I know I made a significant mistake, but that's where I am. I'll be able to participate in OCR, am currently doing another finance internship, and I'll also be going to a minority networking conference somewhat later (though I'm not sure how useful that could be), just to give context. Also, how important is the networking aspect/is the general timeline of applications the same for positions outside of the US, such as Canada, UK, HK, etc.? Thanks in advance!