Ok so most people know what Speed Dating is all about, a bunch of singles going to an event where they have a few minutes to find out about someone to decide if later they might like to know them a bit more. The the important bit is getting to know about people to find out if you want to know more.
Less people probably know what Speed Networking is, similar to Speed Dating a bunch of people get together this time representing businesses to found out who else in the room they might like to do business with and to build up their database of contacts.
Most people tend to approach speed networking as away of looking for more clients and here in lies the problem, nobody is there to buy!
So here is a thought, what if like Speed Dating the business representatives were actually looking to find out more about the businesses in the room and even better find out more about the people in the room. This helps gain a better understanding of who they might know that could be your future clients.
If your look at rooms as 50 clients, the most you can get is 50 clients, if you looks at a rooms as connections, friends and advocates and each person has 50-100 connections that is 2,500-5,000 possible clients?
Getting to know people on a personal level is how you get access to those connections. When the know you, like you and trust you they want to know what they can buy from you before they even know what you have to offer.
Some food for thought.