Running an Internet marketing networking day

Internet marketers can be quite a solitary lot. They tend to work from home and usually have little opportunity to interact with their peers, except via email or forums.

This lack of personal contact can make building the kinds of business relationships that make the world go around very difficult. There is nothing like meeting a person face to face and chatting to them to help you decide if they are a good fit with your personality.

Also, just having the opportunity to chat with someone in real life is incredibly valuable. Far more can be shared and exchanged in a few minutes of live talk time than in weeks of emails.

Unfortunately, the occasions when you can meet up with fellow Internet marketers are few and far between. Most events that are run tend to be workshops, seminars or conferences, which, although they do often have time for people to mix and mingle in the bar, are not really set up to be networking events. Their primary purpose is to put an audience in front of a speaker who can sell them something expensive.

Some online marketers organize mastermind groups where members of their network are invited to get together for brainstorming sessions, but those are almost always by invitation only. And are often focused on product creation or mutual promotion.

What is needed is a day where online marketers of all levels can get together in a safe environment, with no presentations, no pitching and no pressure. A day where networking is the only objective and where attendance is open to anyone.

Such networking days are rare, so why not organize one for yourself?
The first thing to do is find a suitable venue.

Most restaurants are very happy to take group bookings, but may not be quite so pleased for you to spend all afternoon chatting. So you will need to find a place to meet that stays open all afternoon - if you plan to start proceedings with a lunch - and won't be concerned if you stay until 5 or 6 pm - or even later.

Often this will mean you taking a back room, which is ideal.

Having found a place to meet, negotiate a fixed price with them for the meal. It gets very confusing when everyone wants something different to eat and insists on a separate bill. Most restaurants will be quite obliging and will probably give you a discount over the regular menu costs if you have sufficient people. They will also give you a fixed menu that you can distribute to attendees in advance so they can preselect what they want to eat.

If you get them to email their selections for you to notify the restaurant, a lot of fuss and bother will be saved on the day.

To make this work though, you will need to give every attendee a name label with their food choices marked, because most people will forget what they selected.

A good number for a networking meeting is between 12 and 30 people. Fewer than 12 and the conversations don't flow well - and one or two people will tend to dominate. More than 30 and the administration will get quite complicated. As you gain in experience running networking days you will be able to add more.

Cost. The cost that you need concern yourself with is the agreed set price for the food. It is usual to negotiate that a beer or glass of wine is included in the price, and coffee afterwards. Any other drinks that are ordered should be the responsibility of those buying them. Make sure the staff in the restaurant know this or you could end up with an unexpected bill at the end!

It is perfectly reasonable for you to charge attendees a small premium over and above the agreed restaurant price. After all, you are doing all the work. But don't be greedy or you'll put people off.

Payment. It is much better to get payment by PayPal in advance. If you take the money on the day there will always be people who forget their wallet of don't have enough cash on them. Then things can get difficult. Be aware of PayPal's fees though and adjust the price people have to pay accordingly.

Another factor in taking the payments in advance is that having paid already, they will be much more likely to turn up on the day. Sadly, experience shows that if you let people pay on the day, up to half the people who said they would come don't show up. And that can play havoc with your arrangements with the restaurant or hotel.

On the day, try not to let people sit with their friends. All that will do is turn your day into a series of little mastermind groups. The idea is for everyone to mix and mingle.

If you have to stay at the tables for the whole day, insist that half the people on each table move to a different table as soon as the meal is over, and again an hour or so later. Call it Internet marketing speed dating and everyone will love it! Some venues, particularly hotels, will allow you to move from the tables to the bar, which is even better as people will then naturally mix themselves up.

Publicity. Your Internet marketing networking day won't be much fun if you don't get people along to it, and they won't come if they don't know that it exists. Use the forums to spread the word and consider starting a mailing list so people can sign up for announcements of your dates.

You will probably need to start fairly small, but word will soon spread and people will eventually attend from far and wide.

A Internet marketers' networking event that is held every two months in London, UK, attracts attendees from all over the world!

It can be a lot of work organizing regular events like this, but there are enormous benefits. Not only will you most likely make a small profit, but you, and all your attendees will also make a huge number of new contacts, JV partners and friends.