A few months down the line and it was back to the KC stadium in Hull for another round of speed networking. As I did the rounds I was reminded of a conversation I had with a BforB colleague who said: "These chamber events are all well and good but after a while you meet the same people."
Sure enough, there were a number of familiar faces there but rather than feel frustrated I actually enjoyed today's experience more. Today I was a shifter, moving around the room rather than a sitter so it actually helped when on about 4 occasions I could sit down and say, "nice to see you again", rather than launch into my elevator pitch. The second reason is that it was a real pleasure to greet people, who I had spoken to for only 3 minutes in the past, and have them greeting me like a trusted colleague, rather than some bloke who once tried to sell them something in two minutes flat. We asked how things had been going what our plans were and what we hoped to achieve, in one instance giving and receiving advice.
Certainly speed networking has a basic purpose, meet a large number of people in a short amount of time. But today's experience reminded me what BforB is really all about. Those Know Like and Trust relationships really can be formed in two minutes flat and rediscovering that today gave me at least as much pleasure as meeting new faces.
If you want to develop longer lasting relationshipss in business, then follow the link for details about business networking now in East Yorkshire
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