Happy Hour and Speed Networking Business Professionals

Wednesday, February 8,  2012 at 5:45PM 

**We will no longer accommodate latecomers**

WHO: We have changed our group up just a bit which means we are open to all business professionals; however, we will have Entrepreneur specific speed networking meetups throughout the year.  (Entrepreneurs will have created the business themselves so unless you are Mrs. State Farm or Mr. Microsoft then this would not be the meetup to attend)  

For Business Professionals we want all including technogeeks, boutique owners, stylists, business consultants, art dealers, sales reps, marketing directors, activity directors, developers, app developers, bakers, chefs, event planners outside the box thinkers and all interesting professionals welcome.  Meet and learn from others!

What:  If you have heard of speed dating – It’s exactly the same principle just adapted for business. Attendees are seated in pairs and each pair has 5 minutes to introduce themselves and what they do. At the end of the 5 minutes one of the parties moves to the next person on the right until the hour is up.  It’s an excellent way for people who find networking difficult, to meet others. It also breaks the ice for any general networking which might follow afterwards.  We have had a handful of meetups so far and it has been successful in growing each attendee's network.  We would love to have you join!

HASHTAG:  #dallasbiz   (this is for twitter, twitter helps expand ur network, just do it)

5:45 - 5:55 Name Badge/Grab a cocktail

5:55 - 7:00 Speed Networking (5 min per person)

7:00 Informal networking

Housekeeping Rules:

-One representative per company

-Be on time, we will no longer interrupt the group to accept latecomers

-Bring business cards . .  um what?  Yeah, it actually needs to be stated

-No hard selling, share good referrals, ideal clients, events that you can pass on.  The power is in the 2nd line.  Leave your brochures at home.  

-Connect on LinkedIn afterwards, you only get 5 minutes and you should be able to say what you do in 30 secs or less.  Get to the meat of it, trade biz cards and continue the connection later

-Unless its an emergency, put the cell phone away for an hour, this is an intense hour to expand your networking circle as efficiently as possible.  Remember, this is the era of "Brand" You

-Chillax, your just making new friends and new connections

*****No MLMers (and we are maxed out on real estate and insurance peeps)********