Networking is one of, if not the, most useful and beneficial tools available in the world of business today, and is especially effective for those who want to follow an entrepreneurial route moving forward.
What is more, holding and hosting your own corporate networking event reaps a multitude of impressive benefits, and with that being said.
Here is a guide on how to hold the ultimate networking event:
1. Learn the Core Purposes of the Networking event
Even if you are already overly familiar with why networking is an essential component of a successful career in business, when hosting your own event, you need to hold the core benefits of networking in the forefront of your mind.
The main reasons to hold a networking event are as follows:
- To connect professionals in a particular area or alumni from one university
- To recruit professionals for your own business
- To teach professionals a certain skill
- To make useful business connections to further individual careers
2. Set a Realistic Budget
As with any official event, the budget you decide upon beforehand is an integral part of the organizational process and as such, once you set a monetary limit to your networking party, it is essential to stick to it.
When considering how much money your business is going to invest in the event, bear in mind the following important points and considerations:
- The sales and marketing materials
- The cost of hiring the venue
- Beverages and food
- Merchandise
- Video conferencing technology
3. Provide Unique and Personalized Merchandise
Enamel badges, keyrings, mugs, and even larger items of merchandise are an excellent way of promoting your business, as well as keeping your networking event at the forefront of the minds of your attendees.
What is more, useful merchandise can also work as a practical method of word of mouth amongst other potential business associates when they take their bounty to other networking events in the future.
4. Facilitate Interaction and Connection
Regardless of the industry in which your business is based and of course, the primary reason for which you are holding the event in the first place, at the heart of success is when your attendees form productive and ideally, long-lasting, professional connections with each other.
This is why making it so guests can easily form smaller break-out groups, whereby participants who are attending alone can join in; creating icebreakers and short bonding activities, and organizing speed networking opportunities are all important inclusions.
5. Check Back in with Your Guests
Finally, the way to separate a good networking experience for the attendees from a great one is how the organizers follow up after the event is over.
In a couple of days immediately afterward, contact each and every attendee (either by phone or e-mail), to not only seek feedback on how the evening went but also to find out if any of the connections made seem to be of supreme value moving forward.
This way, for your next event you can repeat your successes and of course, make changes to parts of the process that many of your guests appeared not to connect with.
