I've been doing a great deal of networking over the past few weeks and have had some excellent experiences and met fantastic people. Here's a quick guide to some of the events and groups I've been interacting with.
Cincinnati AMA
The Cincinnati chapter of the American Marketing Association has over 600 members in the Cincinnati/NKY region. With about a dozen monthly events planned around SIGs like Business-to-Business and International Marketing, there are plenty of opportunities to get to know people in your niche in both structured learning environments and more social mingling that the Young Professionals group gravitates towards. The fee is reasonable and scaled for business size, but non-members can attend just about every event.
Tristate Business Network
TBN's mission is to bring businesses from all over the Tri-state area together to meet, network and help each other grow business relationships. They have a monthly speed networking event (90 seconds - go!) and daily - yes, I said daily - meeting and networking opportunities in and around greater Cincinnati. With over 200 official members and a constantly changing flow of visitors, TBN focuses on giving first. A modest membership fee is worth the friendships and connections.
New Media Cincinnati - Second Saturday
If you don't know about this one, check out the New Media Cincy site. A relaxed gathering every second Saturday at the Pub at Rookwood organized around new media of some sort by Daniel Johnson, Jr., you can see some of the Twitter traffic by searching #newmediacincy. Event is free, food and drink are attendee's responsibility.
Jelly Cincinnati
This is the #CincyTweetup coworking event that takes place at Crossroads at Ridge and Madison once a month. "The idea here is to have folks who work in many different job functions working together in an open environment. The expectation is that creative juices will flow and new friendships will be forged." Honestly, more networking happens than actual work getting done, but there are people coming and going all day and always someone interesting to talk to and learn from. Was started by @researchgoddess (we'll miss you!) but is now headed up by @hellogerard and @blecount. Event is free.
Market and Profit (MAP)
Twice a month a speed networking event (where you're the only in your field in your group) followed by open networking and a meal. Excellent turnout every time. Very small fee to attend (joining group is free) and another great way to meet professionals and business owners in Cincinnati. Keep abreast of the events through the Linkedin Group. Over 600 Linkedin members.
Social media helps you get out your message and helps to build your presence for your face and your brand online. But nothing substitutes meeting people face to face and growing real-world relationships. Remember: A smile and a handshake is worth a thousand tweets.
So where do you go to network? What groups do you belong to or mingle with? I'd love to get your feedback.
UPDATE!
Thanks to some great feedback through Twitter from @newmediacincy and @hellogerard, we've got some more resources to toss in there, and some things I needed reminding of:
Job Search Focus Group
The Job Search Focus Group of Hyde Park is often lauded in Cincinnati as one of the most extensive "in transition" groups in the region. I was able to attend once and the resources and networking are great; if I ever moved from owning my own business to in transition, that's the first place I'd stop. Follow some of the Tweeting with #jsfg
Cincinnati Social Media
Follow the tweets at #cincysm. And set your alerts! The Enquirer event coming up 9/9 knocked down 50 seats in 45 minutes and the Social Media Breakfast usually goes faster than that.
Resources for Women
I've heard nothing but good things about the Cincinnati Women Bloggers (@cinwomenbloggers), Girlfriendology (@girlfriendology), and the women's publication Cincy Chic.
Additionally, Breanna Gaddie's Networking With Passion blog is always a great read, and Krista Neher created a post a while back that covers some of the items I did not in this post.
Oh, and Thursday, August 20th is networking at the Hofbrauhaus in NKY at 11:30 (thanks @justinrains
Anything else? I'm always up to update!
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I love that things like this are being done to help folks in the Greater Cincinnati area know what's going on. I can wholeheartedly appreciate the effort you've put in, Eric.
ReplyDeleteThanks again!
And people say it's hard to network in Cincinnati! I actually have heard that several times per month. I can't get to everything I want to do because, well, sometimes I actually do have to do work. :)
ReplyDeleteGreat post!
I'd like to thank you both for the comments.
ReplyDeleteDaniel - Thank you for reading. I've been more and more into social networking in Cincy and still don't have my head wrapped around all of it.
Jennifer - Ugh, you should see my calendar this week. I've got 1-3 events every day of the week. It's difficult striking a balance between generating network connections and doing client work.