4th Speed Networking Night held successfully last Sept 22
We imagine people going home from Makati Diamond Residences after the 4th Speed Networking Night last September 22, Friday, were singing “to the left, to the left” to the tune of the Beyonce hit song.
The 4th Speed Networking Night was attended by more than a hundred people last Friday.
More than a hundred people came and gathered around 20 rectangular tables that served somewhat like conveyors that let participants transfer one seat and meet one person at a time. Every four minutes, a line from Beyonce’s Irreplaceable served as the signal for the participants to move to the chair to their left and have an entirely new conversation with another person. This went on for one hour, letting everyone meet at least 15 new people in their network. That doesn’t include the count of people they socialized with after standing up from the tables.
Each pair has a total of four minutes to talk before moving on to their next partner.
The event also featured a smartphone application for the Speed Networking Night that could be used to view the program details, snap photos with special filters and, as a convenient alternative to exchanging business cards, capture the information of other attendees by scanning their QR code.
They could share their business contact information via the 4th SNN app.
Or they could exchange business cards.
For British Chamber of Commerce Executive Chairman Chris Nelson, the Speed Networking Night is a great networking opportunity wherein “you meet people that you obviously were not aware of and suddenly you have a new business opportunity.”
The British Chamber of Commerce is one of the four European chambers of commerce, along with the German-Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry, the French Chamber of Commerce and Industry, and La Camara – Spanish Chamber of Commerce, that brought forth the first Speed Networking Night in 2014 to promote interactions among the different European chambers and create more new opportunities for business. It would later become an annual event and be joined by other chambers of commerce like the Italian Chamber of Commerce and the Philippines-Netherlands Business Council this year.
British Chamber of Commerce Executive Chairman Chris Nelson and German-Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry President Tristan Loveres also enjoyed the night.
The speed networking night is getting more and more enticing each year, as remarked by Tristan Loveres, the first Filipino President of the German-Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry (GPCCI). Aside from enjoying the beer and wine, people can build relationships in a short span of time. According to Loveres, the chambers are actively partnering with other foreign chambers to create a bigger platform for business persons to meet people and strike business collaborations that would be beneficial for the members. That said, we might just start looking forward to seeing a more exciting speed networking night next year.
Written by Rizelle “Rei” Leaño