I got there early on Thursday for the We Mean Business exhibition at Croydon’s Fairfield Halls because I was signed up for the breakfast networking event run by BforB. Greeted by local BforB franchise holder Nick Starbuck, I was told this was a speed networking event. Nick runs a number of speed events in association with business coach Hugh Fenton of Aspirology.
If you’ve not been to one of those, I thoroughly recommend you try it out. The great thing is that a set time limit for each interaction – in this case 3 minutes – presents a simple framework for networking that makes it easy to start a conversation and equally easy to get out of it. It’s also a great way of honing your pitch! Nick and Hugh run them across the SE but I’m sure there will be something similar in your area.
Fairfield Halls by http://www.flickr.com/photos/dgeezer/
The lack of wi-fi in the Fairfield Halls is inexcusable for any venue hoping to host business events and it meant I had to traipse along to a local coffee chain outlet to connect and download and answer email before I could start visiting stands in the exhibition proper. By the time I returned, I only had time for a brief tour of the hall before I had to attend a quick seminar I’d signed up for, followed by a lunchtime networking session.
The seminar on Growing Your Business was a little hurried and superficial but the networking session afterwards was a highlight of the day. Run jointly by Croydon Chamber of Commerce and Best Of Croydon, this turned into a useful interactive networking training session, as well as providing a welcome buffet.
Many trade shows and exhibitions suffer from a sense that too few stands are trying to fill too much space. This wasn’t the case on Thursday. Not only did the main room and mezzanine area feel full but the stands were close together, which gave a feeling of intimacy and collaboration to the whole event. There was a general air of camaraderie and collaborative striving for the same goal. In short: the exhibition felt like a vibrant success.
However, in addition to the missing wi-fi, I would also have liked to see some break-out areas for chatting further with people encountered at the breakfast and lunchtime networking events or for a more intimate talk with one or two of the exhibitors.
In summary, I would have to say that for me the networking events were clearly the most rewarding part of day. I met some familiar faces but also garnered a host of potential new business contacts. It’s all about building relationships, of course, and not about selling. The contacts you make have contacts. When the time comes – weeks or even months down the line – that a contact is asked to recommend someone who can solve a particular problem, being known immediately puts you ahead of others.
This was the first of these Croydon events set up by the FSB. Speaking to Jeremy Frost – one of the local FSB chapter members and a driving force behind the day – afterwards in the All Bar One across the road, he was thrilled by the attendance and the general feedback. We discussed the lack of wi-fi and break-out spaces and he admitted he had already noted those as must-haves for future events. So, it looks like next year’s exhibition – already scheduled, I believe, for October 2nd 2010 – will be even better. Keep an eye out and register as soon as possible.
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