Boards Business Networking

djk1000

Just testing the water here, I'm self employed and always looking for new ways to network. I'm wondering if there are enough people like me on boards to plan a business networking event and see how it goes, if all goes well, we can do it regularly.

It doesn't have to be boards members only, the more the merryier!

Merrion

Sounds interesting. I am a member of the Ecademy network which is good for business networking but more local stuff would be good.

spongebob

PM Devore , he would be amenable to a discussion at any rate. I reckon its a good idea in Dublin .

M

is_that_so

I am not in business myself but I am considering it . I certainly would support the idea.

djk1000

Devore pm'd

Figment

interested

Nuttzz

as am I

DeVore

Interesting idea!

I'm not sure why my blessing is required for full grown adults to meet and greet even if it IS organised here

If we wanted to make this a bit bigger then we can go Boards-wide with it and charge a nominal cover charge for a room/whatever and kick back a bit to the site/community.

Either way, I have no objection to this at all...

DeV.

djk1000

I know we don't need your blessing, but it's nice to be nice I think it would work better if we went boards wide, we have to stay on message though, it is a business networking event, not a social gathering (beer can come later!) Nominal fee sounds good, I can book a meeting/function room in Dublin some evening in late Jan/early Feb, I don't want to get stung for the booking fee if no one turns up though. I think it should be for anyone that owns a business, anyone in sales, anyone that wants to start a business, anyone that thinks it will benefit them in any way (probably best if it's a student free zone )

So, next step I think is to get the message out to everyone on boards (need your help there Dev)

Fionn101

fantastic idea, except for the student free zone,

I personally hire students for both web-design and teaching computers . Not only are there rates more acceptable but they need to eat , and hence work.All the students Ive used have been nothing short of brilliant.

See you soon so...

djk1000

Valid point Fionn, but I'd say that students won't be in the market to buy, they'll just be there to sell. Networking isn't too effective with everyone there to sell and no one there to buy. I also rate networking events on the quality of cantacts made, and a student is generally not a good business contact. If we met and you needed a good solicitor or accountant, the name of a bank manager, an "in" at a specific company et al... I'd be able to help you out much more than a student would.

Students are the future yada yada... So maybe a students and business owners/managers/leaders night would be an option as a second event, a "pick your brains make contacts" thing for students. I'd definitely be up for that.

hmmm

I'd be interested, but I'd be concerned if it became a "boards social event" and I agree with the student thing (sorry). Mandate suits/smart casual, not for sartorial reasons but to raise the "effort to attend" bar.

djk1000

Agree with Hmmm totally. Maybe an optional beer afterwards though.

Keyzer

Can we have naked chicks wandering around the location chosen?
That would rock...

uberwolf

non-student?
I'm a student. I have a registered company. I believe we've a good product/service to offer and it would be worth getting that message out. True we may not have anything to buy right now, but we're getting serious and would need services in teh near future. And helpfully I do own more than one suit. So can I come?

djk1000

Keyzer you're an idiot..

Wolf, glad to have you..but wearing more than one suit is optional.

spongebob

The reason I told you to ask Dev is because I had a muppet filter system (Bubbles could appear otherwise ) in mind all along.

Each gig has an attendance ceiling.
Each gig has a theme (ish) , persons in Ag Machinery one nite etc .

Each proposed attendee PMs a filtering board, like Mods but with no Board

Unless attendee = muppet they can get invite , students are as relevant as anyone else if they have a good reason to be there. Muppetry at gig = Permanent Ban and naming , no comebacks .

IE watch those nose candy comedowns whether you are a student or otherwise

Sectorally Relevant Investors / VC types invited, eg if they will fund Ag Machinery .

Let Dev 'preside' and help folks mingle, I'm sure he will delegate to others ASAP

Thats How I would sort the first few, newbs not invited (under 50 posts) unless they can point to supreme quality in their postings !

M

djk1000

OK, here is the plan for the first "Boards does Business" networking event.

PM me with your name, company name, position and contact details. Let me know how many invitations you want, the more quality networkers we have the better for us all.

Once I know how many people are going I can find a room in Dublin and book it.

I'm not going to exclude anyone for the first event. If you think it will benefit you then come along, remember, it's not a recruitment fair!

Only go if you are in business, have something to sell, want to be in business, want to make some contacts, are in the market to buy, want business advice or have business advice to give.

This is not a social gathering, wear smart casual at least.


Everyone will have a minute or under to introduce themselves to the room, then everyone will be free to mingle. after the event, I will email everyone's contact details to all that attended so people can follow up.

If this event goes well, then we should elect a small committee to handle the next event, bar the muppets, set some rules etc.

How's that??

Keyzer

djk1000 wrote:

Keyzer you're an idiot..

Some people are so touchy....
Anyway, let me know when you having the computer/IT night....

spongebob

Post in the Events forum too (Here )

It will inevitably attract beer swilling muppets ....many of them mods ..... but you can judge this yourself from the PM's

M

Nuttzz

anything ever become of this?

Sponge Bob

No, of course not.

Don't mention it in Feedback either unless you want to get banned !

Nuttzz

Sponge Bob wrote:

Don't mention it in Feedback either unless you want to get banned !

why

Zascar

Just came accross this thread now and I think its a great idea, I've had a similar idea in my head for ages, was thinking about settup up a site somewhere along the linkes of www.lunch.ie but a bit more business orientated... anyone still interested?

Merrion

I'd be interested. Incidentally is there anyone in this forum who'd be on the business angel/experience sharer/contact maker side of the table?

djk1000

I've been waiting to see if there was more interest, five people have pm'd me so far. I want to have enough interest so we can rent a room somewhere without it being too expensive. Unless anyone has any ideas for a free or cheap meeting place?(not a pub).

Nuttzz

how many is enough interest?

djk1000

I'm thinking 10-15 is a good number, better chance of some worthwhile contacts. I think I'll just book a room in Dublin city for an evening next month and announce it in events, I just don't want to get stung for room rental!

jrey1981

I might be interested if it's at a time and location in Dublin that's convenient....

trap4

Anyone interested in a similar event in the Mid-west / Limerick region? Hope I'm not hijacking the thread lads, let me know if I should start a new one.

Specky

Hey folks
If anyone's interested, the HotBed Business Development network are hosting a networking event in the Harcourt Hotel, Harcourt Street tomorrow evening (Thursday 31st March) at 6.00pm.

There will be a number of network member companies there along with representatives from Enterprise Ireland and ISME.

HotBed is funded by Skillnets to provide business development support to knowledge based micro-enterprises, mostly in the Greater Dublin area, but we do have member companies all over the country.

We've just received some additional funding to help existing member companies address their development issues between now and September, but we're also looking to apply for funding under the next Skillnets round. They have around €50million for networks like ours, and as an existing network we have an excellent chance of receiving a slice of this over the next few years.

Tomorrow's event is intended to give our members an opportunity to meet and discuss their changing needs and how we, as a network, can address these needs in the months to come.

We're looking both to expand and consolidate our network leading up to the application for the next round of funding, so we'd be really interested to meet people who're serious about business and might want to get involved in this unmissable opportunity.

Membership is restricted to existing companies and generally our members have been trading for at least two or three years. We have members from all kinds of business from fashion to security to marine science to horticulture to internet content development to manufacturing and beyond.

Entrance to the event is free of charge.

Geoff Moore
Steering Group Chairman
HotBed Business Development Ltd

djk1000

I'll be there.

jrey1981

did anything ever come of this idea?

Kinetic^

Defo a good idea.

djk1000

There wasn't enough people interested at the time.

trap4

Well let's not give up lads, we definitely need to bootstrap a culture of business networking in this country.



-James.
EirePreneur.com

SouperComputer

id be interested in this

fintan

Count me in also

antoinolachtnai

I'd give it a spin too ...

http://aspoke.com/

Kinetic^

Well I know there a few qualified/trainee accountants on here.

Edit: Check out the new sig!!!

dunkamania

I am in

Zascar

Definietly a great Idea I'm sure there is a great range of professions etc and it would be a very useful networking excercise. Perhaps when we have a decent amount of people we should get a lit of who everyone is and what they do etc.

djk1000

Well this post is definitely what you would call a slow burner, a year in the making! It seems like we have enough interest to do something here. I'd appreciate opinions on the following,

Meet sometime soon (within two months)
Meet in Dublin
Have a short structured meeting with introductions etc.
End the formal part and chat over a pint/coffee/sandwich
Decide whether we should make it a regular event and make a point of people bringing a guest to the next one.

I have been to quite a few networking events in my time and I would suggest that before you sign up, think about what you can bring to the meeting first and see what you can get from it second, people that turn up at networking events and try to make a sale in every conversation just end up being disliked.


There may be a small charge for a room somewhere.

cheers!

Nuttzz

Can I suggest September for the first meeting? during June, July & August people are bound to be away I think we'd be back in the swing of things by September.

Also if the mods would sticky this thread to the top, or sticky a new thread to the top it would be a great help

Kinetic^

djk1000 wrote:

Meet sometime soon (within two months)

It's probably best that we get the ball rolling asap, although being the summer there may be people on holidays

djk1000 wrote:

Meet in Dublin

It's probably the most accesible by everyone, that's not to say that future meetings can't be held elsewhere.

djk1000 wrote:

Have a short structured meeting with introductions etc.

Hi I'm bob and I've been sober for .......:D

djk1000 wrote:

End the formal part and chat over a pint/coffee/sandwich

Great idea, give everyone a more relaxed atmosphere.

djk1000 wrote:

Decide whether we should make it a regular event and make a point of people bringing a guest to the next one.

Yeah this could be done, obviously we'd be trying to broaden what sort of industries are serviced.....so I don't think I'll be bringing my accounting friends

djk1000 wrote:

I have been to quite a few networking events in my time and I would suggest that before you sign up, think about what you can bring to the meeting first and see what you can get from it second

I've an idea of what you're talking about but could you elaborate before I make an idiot of myself.

djk1000 wrote:

people that turn up at networking events and try to make a sale in every conversation just end up being disliked.

Well the only way we can pick them out is by giving feedback to each other after the meeting.

djk1000 wrote:

There may be a small charge for a room somewhere.

This can be split equally before it starts.

djk1000

Yeah, I'm quite happy with September once we don't lose momentum.

elaborating on my point Keyser, just come to the meeting, but look out for how you can help other people in the group by sharing expertise, contacts, ideas and experiences. Once you do that, people will start to trust you and be happy to give you their business or more importantly, recommend you to their contact base.
If Everyone turns up to just get what they can from the meeting, then everyone will go away with nothing. If everyone turns up to give what they can, then everyone will leave with something, it might not be a sale, but it might be a bit of free information or advice that leads to sales in the longer term. Of course, if you are starting in business and you are a bitt weak with the info and contacts at the moment, come along anyway, learn what you can, make some contacts and pay it back in the future as your contacts develop.

My two cents worth about networking,

Build Trust, keep your word, help when you can, come on time, don't bull****, bring business cards, be able to explain what you do in 30 seconds, be able to elaborate on what you do and keep it interesting. listen as much as you talk, if we have some drinks afterwards, remember it's not a pissup the whole evening is a first impression maker.

Feel free to disagree with or add to that, maybe we can all learn a bit about networking between now and the meeting by discussing it here??

Kinetic^

djk1000 wrote:

Yeah, I'm quite happy with September once we don't lose momentum.

TBH, I think it should be earlier, look what happened the last time prople tried to get it going. You won't be able to please everyone and if somebody can't make it, then there'll be another meeting where they can.

REDZ

count me in!
The chamber of commerce has nice meeting rooms for hire at resonable rates in the city centre. Growcorp also have a nice big room in citywest.
James

frobisher

I'm possibly interested too.

Darragh29

This is an excellent idea, count me in. I was speaking to a guy recently who runs The BNI (Business Network International) Airport Chapter.

http://www.bniairport.com/bniairport/Main/Home.htm

I hope it's ok to post this link here, its just to give the OP and other folks a flavour for how these networking groups can go, I've no association the group above other than having been told about it.

What they do is they meet up first thing in the morning (I think its about 7:00AM-8:30), for a working breakfast once a week and exchange ideas/problems and swop jobs, (say a caterer needs a website done up, they pass this to someone in the group who does websites, apparently they generate a huge amount of business for each other by doing this, you can see how this can happen with so many contributors to the group). Everyone is encouraged to bring business to the group, so what you give in one hand you will receive in the other eventually. You don't have to have any jobs to turn up though, the group operates on a strong platform of trust and that if everyone concentrates on giving, everyone will come out better off. By meeting up over a business breakfast, they beat the traffic, still get to work and at this hour of the morning you wouldn't have people turning up for drink or for sh*te talk. They charge an annual fee for members and I think a joining fee. I think they have their weekends away from time to time so it's not all work and no play!

Cr8or

I would be into this too.. I have recently started a new biz.

May I ask what areas are you all in? If its a load of IT people that do the same thing meeting up, maybe it might not be such a good idea?

Anyway .. Does anyone want a site to be set up for this? what’s it going to be called?