Ivan Misner |

International Networking Week 2011

February 10th, 2011 |

This week is International Networking Week and, as has happened now for the last 5 years, BNI celebrate big time.

Here in n Hampshire in the UK, we celebrate with a ‘Big Breakfast’ where members from a number of Chapters get together to mark the occasion with a speed networking event.

This morning we had 116 people get together to network with one another and to start the process of building new relationships with new contacts, as well as meeting up with some old friends that we don’t see so often. Plus, of course, we have a few visitors that come along just to see what goes on in BNI.

As in previous years, the event was a great success. We’ve now got the process of managing the speed networking down to a fine art and we have a terrific formula that ensures that everyone gets to present their 60 second presentation to every other person in the room in small groups.

If you’re running a large event and would like to know how to go about it, get in touch and I’ll be happy to share it with you.

You might also like to check out Dr Ivan Misner’s video promoting International Networking Week in 2011.

There were a lot of people at the event today but I did manage to speak to a few people to find out how the Big Breakfast worked for them.

A visitor this morning, Janine Pert of Discover Wine, told me that she’d made 4 contacts “To die for” – and she had to leave half way through the morning because she had to attend a training course that she was booked on to.
I spoke to Rob Chambers (Rob the PC Consultant), a new business owner and a new member of the Core Group, Knights Winchester, who said that he’d connected with 5 other IT support companies that would be interested in outsourcing their domestic work to him.
Steve Greenfield, of Greenfield Insurance, is a member of the newly launched Fortress Fareham Chapter. He said that BNI had made a significant impact on him and his business. Not only has he had lots of business but he’s made some terrific friends and business associates through the Chapter and the BNI experience has helped him overcome his own shyness and has bolstered his confidence. He also made a few, potentially, very useful contacts at the Big Breakfast.

This is just a very small selection of comments from the 116 people that celebrated International Networking Week with us this morning. There were many, many more.

If you’ve never tried BNI before, if it’s been a while since you’ve been, if you’re serious about embracing networking to help grow your business and you can handle more business, get in touch and I’ll be more than happy to extend an invitation to you.

Happy International Networking Week.

Steve Bimpson