What is Speed Networking you ask?

You've heard of Speed-Dating, an organized event attended by dozens of single people who talk briefly to potential partners and create a mutual interest. Combine this with the idea of making professional, rather than romantic, contacts, and what do you get? - Speed Networking. It is a method of making a potential business contact by briefly talking to a series of people at an organized event and exchanging contact details.

The exact arrangements vary, but in a typical speed networking event, people are given five minutes or less to talk to a potential contact, and are then moved on ? often to the sound of a buzzer. At the end of the meeting, business cards can be exchanged, thereby sowing the seeds for a new commercial relationship.

"Speed networking, as it's more often known, is a relatively new urban trend, increasingly popular in a world where social capital (i.e. who we know and how they can help us) is prized."
(The Guardian, 7th February 2005)