prepared by Pam Neill and Julie Fraser

Speed Networking is a fun, energetic and dynamic way to build relationships and develop a thriving, successful word-of-mouth network

How does it work?

You will have a few minutes with each person to introduce yourself, your business/company, what you do and what you want from the evening.

At the end there will be time for you to connect with anyone you missed or to extend the conversations with those of your choice.

How do I prepare?

1. It is important to think about what you want to get out of the evening.  Some examples are:

• You need contacts within an organisation to get a job or promote a product or service you have
• You are wanting to generate publicity for an event
• You want to widen your circle of business / personal contacts
• You want to mix with like minded people

2. Have a well prepared USP or ‘elevator speech’.  Very simply this is :

• Your name
• Your company/business name
• What you/your company does
• What you want to get out of the evening

3. Make it engaging as you will be desperate to hear something entertaining and memorable by the time you get to the last person – and so will they!

4. Bring plenty of business cards or note cards with your contact info on.  Also bring extra flyers or promotional material along for those that want more information.

5. Take notes.  This will help you remember important facts about that person, their interests and goals.

6. Challenge yourself to help at least one person that you meet.  If everyone does this the impact of this event could be huge.

What happens after the event?

The real magic starts to happen when you build and continue the relationships outside of the event. So, visit the websites of the people that attended, send them an email, phone them and suggest another meeting with the intention of becoming better acquainted and finding out how you can both help each other.

Posted November 14th, 2009 by Kate No Comments »

This week I’ve heard about some accessible and valuable courses that you can benefit from without huge commitment.  Ideal when most of use are trying to balance a million and one things at once anyway!

• PR workshop s 1 or 2 day workshops, held by Strive PR in October, click here.
• Marketing Essentials, Chartered Institute of Marketing Course at IBS. It’s one unit of the Professional Certificate in Marketing, so you can just take that or go on to do more.  It starts in September so contact IBS without delay if you’re interested.

Also . . . a second workshop on Intellectual Property is to be held on the Isle of Man.  I’ll share more when I know but I’ve heard that the last one was excellent and informed a range of interested parties from business, government and education about IP issues and opportunities on the Isle of Man specifically.

Posted August 5th, 2009 by Kate No Comments »

Education and enterprise go hand in hand and so I was very excited to hear about a new undergraduate course specifically designed for students from the Isle of Man.

Manx students on the “Enterprise & Entrepreneurship”  BA/Bsc course would study for two years at Coventry University and return to the Isle of Man for their final year at the International Business School, where they would start their new venture with the support of the Isle of Man Business & Innovation Centre as well as local mentors / advisors.

I think this brings a fantastic opportunity for people to fast track business success and gain skills and experience in a supportive environment and as part of a cohort, whilst making the most out of the the opportunities offered by the Isle of Man.

Interested? Contact me at the BIC. You heard it here first.

Posted August 5th, 2009 by Kate No Comments »