Speed Networking: A Quick Way to Increase Your Contacts

Project Network India held its 26th networking meet on 27th February 2018 at The Bombay Bronx, Breach Candy. Over 40 companies from 30 different industries attended the event, making it a grand success. The attendees started walking in 30 minutes prior to the event with an ambitious spark in their eyes to expand their network in an Open Networking session.

The event started with the co-founder, Trinath Siram introducing everyone to Project Network, a brief of which is explained below. ‘Project Networking is a networking platform for the entrepreneurs of the city. They aim to create various networking groups where every group will have one member solely representing the industry they belong to. They meet once every 2 weeks and currently have two working groups-

One in South Mumbai called Spark with 21 permanent members and the other in Andheri called Ignite with 13 permanent members, both still growing. The USP of these groups is to have only one company from one industry. All the members of the group focus on the Give aspect of networking because they are now aware how the marketing and revenue multiplies once an entrepreneur gives contacts and referrals to others. In this process, all entrepreneurs increase their net worth through our network.

The introduction was then followed by a quick open forum wherein about 12 members presented their companies in an innovative manner that left a lasting impression in the minds of the interested companies. This session helped break the ice between the gathered strangers and eased the open networking session.

Moving forward, a “Speed Networking” round and a “Give and Take session” was conducted. Speed networking is a meeting format designed to accelerate business contacts. The attendees were made to stand in two lines, each having one member in front of them. Each pair got 60 seconds to sell their company to the opposite person after which they were made to SWITCH to the next person. During the Give and Take session, each attendee is given about 5 minutes to come up with 3 things they can give to the group and 3 things they want from the group. Everyone got an opportunity to present this generating around 100 odd contacts in a span of just 10 minutes.

The event ended with a small award ceremony where gifts were given to the Best Speaker, Best Presenter, Best Speech and Best Networker. These gifts were kindly given by Ms Sanchi Dixit, Co-founder of Card Affairs.

A wide-range of companies from different industries were present at the event. Companies such as InternTheory, Indie Folio, Startup Grind Mumbai, Rapid Delivery, IIDE, Suit up, Honest illustrations, Cake pop rush, Design bay studio were a part of the event. The open networking session was on for over an hour more than the dedicated time and by the end there were already updates of 3 to 4 collaborations finding their way to implementation. This event can most certainly be put down as a another success story for Project Network India .