Boards Business Networking

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?

mox54

I've seen this posted before and it seems to have died which is a pity - I think if those who are very interested should post up the fact and someone else can take a count of numbers - if we can get between 10-20 then we should decide now that we can meet in Dublin for 1 meeting and get the ball rolling, then we can come back to the boards and get more -

it's important we get it started and do it next week to meet week beginning 10th or 17 July - venue dublin and bring business cards etc etc etc.

I'm interested and can be available to meet.

Kinetic^

mox54 wrote:

I've seen this posted before and it seems to have died which is a pity - I think if those who are very interested should post up the fact and someone else can take a count of numbers - if we can get between 10-20 then we should decide now that we can meet in Dublin for 1 meeting and get the ball rolling, then we can come back to the boards and get more -

it's important we get it started and do it next week to meet week beginning 10th or 17 July - venue dublin and bring business cards etc etc etc.

I'm interested and can be available to meet.

I agree completely, we need to get a base (be it small or not) asap, so that people can see that it works. Then more people will jump on board (pun intended ).

mox54

That makes 2 people available for week beginning 10th 0r 17th July - can I suggest Citywest as a venue - it's miles from me but I can make easy - if interested could posters suggest week that best suits them and if Citywest is ok.

It would be great to get this done and dusted!!:cool:

Cantab.

I would like to get involved with this meeting.

My area is in electronic design, embedded systems (information displays in particular) and low-cost production.

Would like to bounce my capabilities off a few people with like-minded ideas. Would also be looking to meet with people who would like to work with me on new projects.

SouperComputer

week beginning 10th 0r 17th July

Works for me!

Black_Couch

I don't fully comprehend how networking works. Could it ever be internet based?

mayhem#

I would possibly be interested also pending on enough people attending.
I'm involved with the Ecademy Ireland club (http://www.ecademy.com/module.php?mod=club&c=3103) and will post info on there as soon as a date and time is fixed..

E.

djk1000

I'm free for the week beginning 11th July

Kinetic^

djk1000 wrote:

I'm free for the week beginning 11th July

Yeah same here.

djk1000

Wow, this is a great response compared to the response I got last year. I will organise a room for this in Dublin somewhere if we have enough attending. If it is only a few people then i would suggest that we just meet for free in a hotel lobby or coffee shop.m Looks like mid July is a good first date. I have been in various networking groups over the years and I would like to volunteer to chair the formal part of the first meeting, then I think the fairest thing would be to rotate the chair for future meetings

This is probably against the rules for boards.ie, but hopefully I'll get away with it in the spirit of this thread! If anyone needs business cards for the event, just let me know