Will the real ‘Collaborative Networking Event’ please open its doors!

I, so often hear from organisers of networking events, or read in their promotional materials, that their events are all about encouraging ‘collaborations’ between their delegates. When you really go and listen to their delegates, they seem more concerned about their sales pitches and exchanging business cards.

So often, their role (and authority) is about getting sales, rather than building meaningful relationships or links. Although, they will talk about the importance of relationship management, they seek to sell their first order......and repeat the process again and again.

I feel this point is best illustrated by an auld associate of mine: who was a Business Advisor from one of the Greater Manchester Authorities. Once we got into a rather heated discussion when he declared his ‘met the buyers’ event’ was a collaborative event as “you sought to collaborate with the buyer and then sell your product”. Clearly, he only saw collaboration as a process between the buyers focusing on selling their goods.

So often, I am tempted to reach for the dictionary and find the ‘academic’ definition on the subject. Sorry, my desk’s Collins English Dictionary defines it nicely as “to work with another or others on a joint project”. (Interesting it also talks about “to cooperate as a traitor” but I think we will move on from that point!)

I see collaborating, as meeting with others delegates to share and exchange new developments which might be beneficial to your combined businesses. They are about developing the opportunity to offer a ‘joint’ or an ‘extended range of services’ to your ‘joint client’, based on both of you working collaborating towards a business offer.

In doing so, there would be the prospect for the partners to have additional or new and dynamic services added to their original business’s offer. This would be a seamless and cost effective manner of increasing your offer and therefore avoiding the need of turning down work when a client asks for services beyond your businesses offer. Why increase your business risks by adding additional staffing costs to provide an additional service to your client? You can just work with a partner, which will incur no additional costs.

For example, why should a web agency take on a mobile developer or a SEO specialist when they can work collaboratively with a partner who offers that specialist service? Why should a freelance designer try to learn and develop their own software skills, when they can work with a compatible freelancer, who can do the back end tasks in half the time and half the cost? Similarly, why should the designer and content developer, who both have clients with the food / hospitality sector, not collaborate and offer joint services to their joint clients within the food / hospitality businesses. These are all examples of collaborations which have happened, for delegates who have participated in our recent projects.

More importantly, these practices require ‘mature’ business people to work together; where they avoid the agreements about who the client belongs to? The maturity, is reflected in their understanding that it is a “two way street”, that they are travelling down together and a road where both businesses win from this partnership. Sometimes, the ‘less confident’ business owners require contracts to help them through, whereby instead, a lighter touch might be a have a ‘memorandum of understanding’. However for many, it is just trust and working things through, thus ending up in rewarding ‘marriages of convenience’......some are just ‘friends with benefits’....whereas some are sadly ‘painful heart aches’.

Therefore, collaborative network events should be aimed to encouraging mature businesses, who wish to move away from the traditional sales oriented B2B network, by exploring opportunities to meet and listen to like-minded businesses; that can develop business opportunities for themselves and their clients. The emphasis would be on listening and exploring possible links between the businesses services and to offer a broader range of services.....rather than try to make the quick single sale.

Wired City Reconnected tries to offer your business this opportunity to network and seek collaborative opportunities in a number of linked ways.

Firstly, the events are supported by providing a 'matching service' through the facilitation of an introductory service. This matching and brokering service is facilitated, where one business can comfortably seek out, meet and talk with potential partners without receiving the sales pitch. The matching service is provided as an independent service where information and matching is given in confidence, where the event’s goals are to generate calls for collaboration and positive leads.

Secondly, in advance of the event, each delegate (or business) will receive a Delegate List, which will provide a business profile from each of the business present at the event. Delegates are encouraged to identify with those businesses they would like to be introduced too (or alternative who that do not wish to meet). Similarly, businesses are asked to specify if they are looking for any particular skills or business type.

By providing this information behand; on the night of the event each delegate has their own predetermined list of meetings. This allows the businesses to maximise their time and energy by meeting only the businesses they deem beneficial, rather than just talking socially to irrelevant businesses. In short, why spend the evening wondering aimless just trying to speak / kiss the ugly frogs? Why not instead, focus your attention and meet ‘the prince of your business dreams’.

Thirdly, our intension is to attract the business owners or the decision makers to attend our events. We believe if you want to talk and explore collaborations, it is not good meeting with an Account Manager, who has no authority to engage in that level of business-making decisions. Let the Account / Sales team go to the B2B or B2C networking evens, as that is where that type of work takes place. Our events are aimed at business and technology collaborations; therefore it must be attended by the business decision makers.

Finally, the whole atmosphere of our event is one of a relaxed, informal and light manner. It is hoped, that people come along, enjoy an evening for talking and listening without having to deal with the heavy sales pitches. Importantly, the emphasis is on ‘breaking the bread’ – enjoying a drink, some food and peer to peer conversations about joint ventures and working together.

Collaboration networking could be a new opportunity for you to expand your profile and development new opportunities. If interested our next event is https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/kendal-south-lakeland-wired-cumbria-tickets-21380948994

Photo thanks to Linda @ www.pixlb.co.uk