Networking event

A good friend invited me to a networking event last night. First, I really, really, don’t like networking events and tend to avoid them like the plague. Second, I didn’t really know what to expect as it was held in the once-stuffy Union Club, and was sponsored by a group called “3 Guys Present”. The invitations are to interesting people who want to meet other interesting people!

Wow – what an event. With over 100 people attending and everyone mixing it up with everyone else it was the best networking event I have attended. Good people, great food, fantastic networking. One reason, I believe, for successful mixing was that name tags contained just names, no companies, so everyone was curious about everyone else. The name tags also had unexplained dots of various colors which also generated a good bit of conversation. A second reason that I liked the event was that I met so many new and interesting people – most of the events I go to seem to be the same old. But out of 100 people, going in I probably knew no more that eight or ten, and am glad to say I now know many more. Running from 5:30 to 8:30 it was also one the the longest networking events I have attended.

We were all given a wonderfully warm welcome to the Union Club by the first female president in its long history, and a tour of the refurbished club was offered to anyone who wanted to see the facilities.

Now here is the best part. The 3 guys who started the event a year ago wanted to create unique networking events (which they did) that also  to promote area entrepreneurship (which they do).

At each event they honor and introduce a young entrepreneur who has come up through the ecity program (www.ecitycleveland.com), and provides a small grant to the entrepreneur. The featured business last night is called Cosfurs and is run by two seventeen-year-old sisters. They make fuzzy costumes and mascots and sell them over the Internet, and have more business than they can handle.

My congratulations to the three guys: Bob Aber, David Akers, and Jeff Nischwitz. I look forward to future quarterly events which they claim will go on for 40 years! May this model be duplicated.