One of our partners, Sohini, got the opportunity to attend a seminar on higher education in India organized by FICCI, Kolkata, Genpact, Talisma Corporation and IMT,Ghaziabad. It was a good experience all in all, but what caught her attention was a line in the program schedule handed out to each guest. “Networking Lunch”. These two words got us thinking about the need for business networking through conferences and here we are, penning a piece on it.
To grow a business, bring in clients and let others know about your company, it is very important to network with other business houses. With the advent of social media and websites such as Crunchbase, where companies can list themselves for other corporate houses to see, the need to interact in person has somewhat diminished.
Earlier, in Calcutta, the rich and elite held memberships in clubs such as Calcutta Club and Saturday Club because they were good avenues for networking with other businessmen apart from offering opportunities to relax. Even though some businessmen still hold memberships to these clubs, the trend of joining the clubs afresh is declining.
Networking face to face is very important. An email, invitation request, Whatsapp or Video presentation may be ignored by a company you are targeting to make your client. Such ignorance would be hard to feign if such a proposal was being laid out in front of an executive’s eyes. Moreover, when you meet someone and they offer you some information, it tends to stay with you. The penetration of information imparted through emails is limited because a corporate executive receives hundreds of emails daily and probably goes through only 20% of it.
For the expansion of business, a business meet should certainly be organized. Most importantly, it should be open for all companies, irrespective of their sizes, to attend. What happens mostly, especially in Calcutta, is that business networking meetings are organized but only the top companies get to attend them. The small businesses, start ups and other ventures are strategically cut off from meeting potential clients.
To give everyone a fair chance at expanding commerce, what can be done is an open meet where an enterprise can register, pay a token registration fee and attend the event. The registration fee should be a modest some which can be afforded by all. That way, the new companies also get to showcase their portfolio of work to others. To manage the crowd, a first come first serve basis for registration may be employed. Such a meet, if nothing, it could at least fetch some recognition and publicity for attendants!
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