In-person Networking Still Works Great

Forget online social media.  Sometimes you just need to meet with people face to face.  Small business owners are finding that meetings can help them in many ways – to discuss mutual problems and arrive at solutions, to work together on projects, and to network for mutual business advantage. I like the idea of finding people to sit down with and talk to in “real time” about problems all small business owners share. I also like the idea of knowing about conferences, seminars, workshops that I can attend to learn more about my field. 

Here are two sources for face-to-face meetings:

Meetup.com - Their motto is: Do something. Learn something. Share something. Change something. They provide the online venue for you to find meetings about small business or to set up your own.  You can set the criteria for your search and the distance you want to travel for your meeting.  When I searched in my area, I found several small business groups with 50 miles.

Gary’s Guide, which bills itself as the “#1 Business Events Calendar.”  (It sounds like a Craig’s list for businesses.) They are currently in 30 cities: Atlanta, Austin, Boston, Chicago, Cincinnati, Columbus, Dallas, Denver, Detroit, Houston, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Miami, Minneapolis, Nashville, New York, Orlando, Philly, Phoenix, Pittsburgh, Portland, Raleigh, San Diego, San Francisco, Seattle, St Louis, DC, Toronto, Vancouver and London.   You won’t find events in smaller cities, but stay tuned.  Featured recently in both the NYTimes and Forbes, Gary’s Guide is still growing.   Conferences, expos, summits, and annual meetings are all covered, in a variety of business, technical, and financial areas.

If you have used one of these sources, let us know what you think.

Image: Office Now@Flickr