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Is your Chamber Networking or Not Working at Events?
The Chamber of Commerce supports local business by holding business networking events at businesses in the form of networking socials and business card exchanges. As one of the benefits to their members they promote commerce and networking between members.
I attended a Chamber of Commerce business card exchange a few weeks ago held in a business building hosted by one of the chambers business members. The hosting business took great care to make sure that everything was perfect. The place was clean warm and inviting; visitors were greeted at the door and asked to sign in and to put on a name tag. Guests were then asked if they'd like a beverage or some food from the buffet. Guests were then introduced to some of the people at the event and started to network. I arrived right as the event started and talked with the owner of the business and some of his associates who warmly greeting me in conversation. There was a free chair massage in one of the offices which I really enjoyed. Once I was done with the chair massage I came back out to mingle and network with some of the other people that I had missed talking to, but the atmosphere had changed from a great business networking event to a not working event.
Have you ever been to a business networking event where you felt unwelcomed, uncomfortable and out of place? So what happened in the last 15 minutes that turned this event into not working? You may have planned the perfect networking event. The building was very clean and all the staff was on hand to talk with people. You ordered a grand catered buffet with steak tips, 3 kinds of chicken, petite sandwiches, vegetables with dip, fruit platters and beverages.
So what happened?
Management of the event was handed over to a chamber of commerce representative who arrived 20 minutes late to the event. Upon her arrival she moved to a corner of the room where she sat and socialized with 2 people not looking up. The front desk was not attended to so people who came in were not greeted, not asked to signing in and didn't have name tags. The people who arrived during the unattended welcome desk came in looked around and either went into several small clicks or went to the food buffet and then left the event.
Businesses join Chambers of Commerce to help promote their business and most of them do a really good job at event facilitation. The business that was hosting the event had attended to every detail except for poor representation from the chamber whose job it was to facilitate the event. Clicks developed around the room where small groups of people who knew each other huddled and did not engage with others. The chamber representative sat in the corner isolated and did not look up as people entered the room almost as if she was invisible. The success of any event depends on the facilitation of networking. If you are holding an event please make sure that you always have a greeter that is friendly and can direct people in networking. Some of the Chambers of Commerce have special appointed people called Ambassadors for this function as well as a greeter at the front door.
If you are a networking event coordinator remember the most important job is at the front desk greeting people making the kind of atmosphere that is conductive to good business networking.
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Business-to-business networking is about building relationships based on trust, and enabling your business to grow.
It's said that on average each person has 250 contacts. Each of those people is an opportunity.
What if you could reach out to those 250 people and gain access to the other 249 people that they know? If you trust each other, you may be able to do just that.
Just think what it would be like to gain access to over 60,000 possible clients...
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