Kyle
I’ve been attending networking mixers for all of my adult life. In a previous life as a radio personality and then programmer I attended many conventions that had their own networking mixers as shoulder events. When I started founding my own businesses as “SMBs” before “Startups” were chic, I attended every chamber of commerce business after hours, every small business mixer, power breakfast and the like.
All of these events, and even the ones I regularly attend today for both of our sites, it amounts to a room full of people that get all clicked up into their circle of friends and the theme of the mixer is lost almost instantly as you walk through the door. Sometimes when you go to these things and try to be outgoing and meet new people, people look at you like you’re nuts.
I’ve recently started using discovery apps like Sonar, Glancee and Highlight to see if they would help in the networking mixer problem. In some ways they have but not by much. I’d find people I wanted to meet and they were already in deep conversations with the other people I wanted to meet about baseball, football or their latest deal.
More after the break
Maybe I’m looking for a change, or maybe I’m just a gluton for punishment but I still attend all of these things. The most recent mixer I attended was a little different. It was hosted by my new friend Kendrick at inthecapital. It was an improptu and casual kind of mixer and our other new friends at Nextgame along with Kendrick, made sure we met everyone in the room. I assure you these things don’t typically go that way.
A new company in Washington DC called Cadre is hoping to change that. They have an invite only model that insures they have top notch people in attendance at their event. They also encourage (and then nudge) people to interact with each other after the mixer. Again, that’s what these things are for.
Cadre, founded by Derek and Melanie Coburn brings a new philosophy into play. Derek tells inthecapital’s Carl Pierce that networking is no longer the “me first” atmosphere that it used to be, or at least that’s the way it should be. The Coburn’s are hoping that Cadre members will build long sustainable relationships, again that’s what networking events are for.
Carl Pierce dives into the new Cadre networking platform here check it out at inthecapital.com
