Successful Sports Networker and iStadia Networking Event
Our inaugural networking event held in London yesterday evening held in conjunction with Sports Networker Lewis Howes proved to be very successful judging by the feedback we received on the night. Over 130 attendees turned up stretching the capacity of the lower ground floor at the Eight Club. Sport at all levels and sectors were represented from performance (including a 'keepy uppy' world champion and a world record holder Dee Caffari) through to all aspects of business from marketing and broadcasting to sponsorship, events and recruitment. This provided for a broad eclectic mix and made for some great networking possibilities.
We received a lot of encouragement to organise another networking event in the not too distant future which we are already looking at. We will be posting photos of the event on iStadia and please get back to us if we haven't identified you properly. Don't forget to keep an eye out for Lewis Howes' blogs and emails which will also be forthcoming.
The atmosphere created by everyone was convivial, friendly, open and welcoming so thank you all for contributing to this. Thanks go to David Fuller and the Eight Club for providing our meeting space and the support given to us to help provide what we needed.
Specal thanks go to our main event sponsor Tim Gentles of Football Fans Central Network who has several businesses in professional sport such as Brands in Football, Soccer Coach Central and FFC News.
We would like your feedback on your experience at this event and how you think we can improve things. For instance did you think the colour coding of specfic areas of interest helped (coloured dots on badges)? The atmosphere was 'cosy' and relaxed but spread across different areas which was not conducive to addressing the whole audience but did that matter? Would any organised networking activities have been useful? How often would you like to attend such an event?
We've already reflected on several aspects such as:
- The difficulty of finding the location
- Registering attendees more efficiently
- A PA system to address everyone via the speaker system to make announcements, introduce sponsors, make short speeches, mention sponsors, organise networking activities etc. etc.
- Attendees list posted at one or two places for everyone's convenience
- Open the event earlier as people started arriving at 5.30
- Understaffed bar (though difficult to anticipate)
Your feedback will be greatly appreciated - both positive and negattive as it will help improve the next event.
Keith
Keith Irving
iStadia
We received a lot of encouragement to organise another networking event in the not too distant future which we are already looking at. We will be posting photos of the event on iStadia and please get back to us if we haven't identified you properly. Don't forget to keep an eye out for Lewis Howes' blogs and emails which will also be forthcoming.
The atmosphere created by everyone was convivial, friendly, open and welcoming so thank you all for contributing to this. Thanks go to David Fuller and the Eight Club for providing our meeting space and the support given to us to help provide what we needed.
Specal thanks go to our main event sponsor Tim Gentles of Football Fans Central Network who has several businesses in professional sport such as Brands in Football, Soccer Coach Central and FFC News.
We would like your feedback on your experience at this event and how you think we can improve things. For instance did you think the colour coding of specfic areas of interest helped (coloured dots on badges)? The atmosphere was 'cosy' and relaxed but spread across different areas which was not conducive to addressing the whole audience but did that matter? Would any organised networking activities have been useful? How often would you like to attend such an event?
We've already reflected on several aspects such as:
- The difficulty of finding the location
- Registering attendees more efficiently
- A PA system to address everyone via the speaker system to make announcements, introduce sponsors, make short speeches, mention sponsors, organise networking activities etc. etc.
- Attendees list posted at one or two places for everyone's convenience
- Open the event earlier as people started arriving at 5.30
- Understaffed bar (though difficult to anticipate)
Your feedback will be greatly appreciated - both positive and negattive as it will help improve the next event.
Keith
Keith Irving
iStadia
Tags:
dee caffari,
eight club,
istadia networking even,
lewis howes,
networking in sport,
sports networker
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Comments
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Rob Robson
Co-founder, iStadia.com
A couple of suggestions for the future, if I may:
1. The colour spots were a good idea; but, with indoor lighting and no colour chart to reference [e.g: '"What does black mean?", "It's not black, it's blue", "OK, what does blue mean?"] it might be more effective to pre-advertise the coding on invitations before the event, or use symbols which are more quickly recognisable, e.g: squares, circles, triangles etc, or simply print the relevant categories indicated by the colour spots on each attendee's name panel, e.g: Peter Wells-Thorpe, 3003 Group, Marketing, PR, Sponsorship & Media.
This does not take way from the interactive 'fun' of asking people who they are and what they do - an essential attraction of networking activity - but would make the search for appropriate contacts quicker and more effective.
2. Pro-actively direct and encourage people to move from the central bar area into other less crowded rooms, but not those with poor acoustic environments where they are so noisy that you have to leave to make yourself heard. The room immediately opposite the bar was not suitable, but other unused rooms, e.g. the TV conference room, were.
3. More areas like the 4-seat table with glass wall surround, opposite the reception desk, which we used on a couple of occassions to hold more detailed, one-to-one, break-out discussions with people.
4. A complimentary supply of soft drinks and wines and bar snacks.
The club's location and your event's audience, in the heart of the city, would clearly interest wine importers & suppliers, especially those with new product lines & acting on behalf of new, independent producers, as it gives them an opportunity to introduce their brands to a relevant group of consumers who, having sampled the product, would be motivated to ask for that brand in a third-party, commercial environment elsewhere, following the initial event.
Again, thank you for the invitation and good luck with your future events for 2010.
With kind regards
Peter
Peter Wells-Thorpe
President: 3003 Group
27, Portland Street
London SE17 2PG
Keith
Keith Irving
iStadia
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