Oli Barrett
Oli Barrett is a speed-networking guru! Three years ago he started running Speed Networking events in London because he found regular business events could be pretty stagnant. He also writes a blog: the Daily Networker
What's different about your networking events?
Speed Networking is a bit like Speed Dating; you talk to the person next to you for three minutes about your business or idea, then move on to someone else when the whistle blows.
It's a great way to bring people together from a wide range of industries - that's what you need when you're starting up a venture. I've brought thousands of people together since then and I still love hosting them.
Why did you start running networking events?
A great guy called Mike Grenville let me experiment with it during one of his own events - he'd had a speaker pull out at the last minute.
That gave me the confidence to hold an event of my own, and I invited everyone in my network. Because it was an early week night, I found certain venues would give me a room for free, so the events didn't cost anything. I collected the positive comments from the first event and added then to the bottom of the second invitation.
Overall the benefits of starting your own event far outweigh the costs. Most opportunities come from people we know slightly. So it's a fun and smart way of keeping in touch and leads to you attracting loads of opportunities. Finally, you create good will across hundreds of people which can be helpful further in the future. Try it!
Top tips for hosting an event
- Spend some time before the event sitting down with a quick cup of tea and a printed guest list and thinking about any of the potential introductions you could make in the room.
- Once you've introduced two people, give a brief line to each about the other (John's a keen fisherman, and I met Sandy on a beach), then don't be afraid to just walk away without any big 'goodbye'.
- Make early friends with the venue team as they'll be a great source of support as the evening goes by. It's never good to have to introduce yourself at the point something has gone wrong. More than a quick 'hi', it's really worth having a proper chat early on.
- At the end of the event, remind the guests that you're happy to introduce them to any of the guests they didn't have time to chat to. The best thing of all is that, once people think of you as someone who knows people, then that in turn attracts opportunities.
- Make a beeline for new arrivals. They'll be really grateful that someone has spotted them and you can put them together straight away with anyone else on their own.
- Even if only for 1 minute, I believe in marking the moment with a brief word of welcome. It will introduce you to anyone you've not met as 'the host' and build good will in the room.
I'm passionate about the web's ability to put people together and I think we're only just discovering what that might enable. Try www.soflow.com and www.horsesmouth.co.uk.