Networking: Face to Face Meetings
On Friday I enjoyed a face-to-face meeting with 4 others (Annie Boccio, Jennifer Wilner, Eva Abreu and Joanna Carides). Annie is pictured talking into Eva’s laptop because we had our “tweetup” (where folks on Twitter meet in person) at the same time as a group in northern New Jersey. Unfortunately, we couldn’t hear well with the Skype, so it was difficult to connect well with our friends in the north (Joe Mull, Dorrie Rifkin, Chris Kieff, Amy Koehler, khk2000, Cathy Farber, John Herman). But we had time to talk amongst ourselves about our own businesses and lives.
What are some reasons one might want to meet others in person?
- You might get a new client.
- You might learn something that will help your business.
- You might help someone in the group get a new client or help them with their business.
- Your work involves staring at a screen all day or talking into the telephone (mine certainly does!), and you love the idea of talking about your work in person, with real live people.
- You like meeting new people.
Any more suggestions for why one would attend a face to face meeting?
I also ran a Twitter Research Workshop at the Highland Park Public Library on Monday night, so it was a good face-to-face week for me. It was great to have Dhaval Jani and Haim Cohen at the workshop, as they helped answer some of the participants’ questions.
Do you have opportunities to network in person where you live? How have you found the experience? Eva Abreu organized the tweetup on Friday, and she used http://www.meetup.com/ for the invites and feedback. If you want, you can use it to join our Central New Jersey group or to organize your own in your area.
If you have suggestions on how the audio for Skype can be improved, feel free to say so in the comments.
Update: See Eva’s video -
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Hi Leora, thank you for writing about our F2F (face-to-face) meetup!
This is a great recap and listing of why we would want to meet others live, in person. I enjoy coordinating tweetup/meetup’s because I think there is so much more that can be shared and communicated with each other in person, which really enhances our online conversations. I think the two go hand in hand: Connect online, continue offline to take it the next level.
And bigger isn’t necessarily better; our Friday meetup was a small group and based on some initial feedback, some folks seem to like this better as it is less intimidating, compared to larger networking events.
One other key point I would add is the follow-up after the F2F event. I would suggest to try to find the time to acknowledge, connect with, or thank the people you’ve meet, whether it’s a public Tweet or Facebook wall post, a private message or email, a blog post like Leora’s, a phone call, or another way to touch base after the meeting (I’m currently working on a follow-up video recap and I think the North Jersey Open Coffee group connected via Google Wave after their meetup, which is a cool way to follow up!)
Thanks again, Leora, for joining us on Friday and for posting this post! ~Eva
Eva,
“less intimidating” – yes! When it’s smaller, it’s easier to talk to everyone there. For example, Jennifer and I were both at a tweetup last winter, but I felt I got to know her and her business much better in this smaller group.
Thanks again for all your organizing.
I wanted to say that it was a great idea Eva had in hooking up our two meetings. I was difficult to hear on our end as well. So we’re hoping we can figure out an easy way to solve the noise problem.
I think the meetups are a great way to network, learn and share info with others. Every week I learn something @NJOpenCoffee I can take back and use. I also find they are a great sounding board, where I can bring challenges and ask the group for help in how to approach them. I usually find ideas or approaches I’d of never thought of for the challenges I present.
Every meeting we also talk about great software, websites and services that can help us get our jobs done. This week we decided to start a Google Wave and keep track of all of the stuff we talk about at the meetings this way we can refer back to it later. We also decided to try to get Google Wave invites to anyone attending our meetings who wishes.
I’m very interested in this use of Google Wave and the meetup because I think it could really be a great combination. We’ll see how it develops.
You can find the North Jersey Open Coffee every Friday in Englewood, http://www.meetup.com/North-Jersey-Open-Coffee/ and it’s open to anyone who would like to attend.
Thanks,
Chris Kieff
CEO, 1Good Reason.com
Social Marketing Consulting
Chris, I really like the idea of bringing the group challenges and asking for how they might be approached. I was doing that with a friend for a short time; with a small group, the responses could be even better.
I’m glad you and Eva connected.
Hello Leora! GREAT Blog!!! I too enjoyed meeting and catching up with everyone. I’d really like to do these meetups more often. Like you said, smaller groups can give you more one-to-one time, which is not so easy in a big group. Looking forward to great results from this group for everyone involved.
Jennifer Wilner
Director of Marketing
http://www.Harringtonlimo.com
Jennifer, thanks for the compliment on the blog, and I look forward to our future connections, on and offline.
Sorry I couldn’t make it… Was enjoying my birthday hehe…
Happy Birthday! Hey, there’s always the next one. Adam Wolf (@awolf12) tweeted that maybe he’ll plan one for next week…
I wanted to say that it was a great idea Eva had in hooking up our two meetings. I was difficult to hear on our end as well. So we’re hoping we can figure out an easy way to solve the noise problem.