You can see a lot of information on web about recession and how to fight with it. Yesterdays Business Advice Show supported by Bank of Ireland was everything about stopping to look down (because of recession) and start to do something with your business. I completely agree with everyone who said that January was the biggest peak of recession. People was so afraid that they actually didn’t even went out of their offices. It started to pick up on February and I’m amazed how much people actually attended this event.

I therefor regret a lot that I didn’t came there with my stand. So much people starting their own businesses and expanding them – they would need to do something with web. They would have some great ideas of expending over it. Well, I was rather unfortunate to not thinking through this beforehand.

Event was part of the Enterprise week and as most of them took part in Stillorgan Park Hotel. My benefit from the event:

• 21 business cards, 2 leads, 10 existing contacts
• 2 free tickets on business coaching event next week
• Information about:
  • Patent search & registration
  • Selling Services in Northern Ireland
  • SFA, IIA, ISME, Enterprise Boards joining, networking, events
  • Investment for Redundant people who are starting business
  • Business Coaches
  • Translations
  • Online Banking (event was organised by BoI)
  • Solicitors, Office of the Director of Corporate Enforcement
  • Franchising
  • Accounting software
  • Brochures about Managing Business Finances from Enterprise boards & ROS
  • Brochure about Marketing business

We heard great presentations from both Krishna De (marketing specialist) and Gavin Duffy (from “Dragons Den”) about actually starting to do something not just feeling depressing.

Krishna De presentation

Have you heard of Harry Potter site launching before? I keep hearing it on every networking event related to marketing. It seems that it was such a great success that people keep babbling about it. The marketing person of the site decided to tell only 7 people about site they are going to launch. Those 7 people were a big influencers in their area. They were all invited on the website on midnight for a talk. It made World Wide Rave after. Everyone blogged about it and they got enormous popularity in very short time and with a low cost budget.

So how do we find our customers in this recession scenario? First we talk with our existing / old customers and ask what they have been going through. What are those decisions they have to make now? Creating survey over Google Docs doesn’t cost us anything. Why not to see what our customers are doing? Second we look at your concurrents and analyse how they are trying to target customers.

After creating marketing plan you have to do it. Every day think – what have I done today for my business marketing? And even if it is small step, it will move forward your plan.

Think about how to make marketing more engaging. How to get people come back to you? Promising them free quote, documents or prizes? Make your site interactive. Make your business card interactive. Make people talk about you and keep in touch with them.

Gavin Duffys presentation

He was one of the “Dragon’s Den” dragons, so he kept talking about business, but it was so funny. For example, he talked about applications that didn’t went through. One farmer called them and said that he invented rat catcher, because you are always about 3m from some rat. And those rats, they have electrical charge, so when you take them in hand you can be hit by electricity. The “rat catcher” was actually a land mine. Dogs and cats can walk over it, humans can walk over it and there isn’t a problem. But if rat go over it, it goes boom. Hilarious.

Recession is father of innovation. For those who live through recession are more likely to grow multinational that those who don’t. However, setting up business might be very, very lonely. You are alone with all those problems which you have no clue how to solve. This is where enterprise boards and networking is a great help for everyone starting up.

Apparently “Dragon’s Den” might start second season from September or October. So if you are interested go online and try to apply for it. And remember – that investors do not invest in business, they invest on people.

Awards

BoI together with enterprise boards were giving away 5000eur in cash and 5000eur in mentoring & training to one of the applications for Bright Ideas Challenge. There were 4 of them. Each had great idea, very nice business plan and future growth planned.

• Asimil8 is an e-learning venture that provides immerse education for languages and other subjects through virtual world and gaming technology. I was amazed by they idea. It might be quite similar to the MMORPGs such as World of Warcraft but with learning purposes
• iFoods owns and operates the website lookandtaste.com. The website features over 230 professionally produced video recipes raging from scrambled eggs to the daunting soufflé. I actually have to check that website out. It looked very tasty.
• Trezur is an online music recommendations service. It provides listeners with a widely distributed mechanism to find new music. Its recommendation engine combines the best of people-generated and automated musicology analysis to provide listeners with relevant recommendations
• Vellocity Couriers provides an environmentally friendly bicycle courier service within Dublin’s city center. Using specially designed cargo bikes, it carries small to medium loads more quickly, cheaply and with no emissions.

Asimil8 won the first prize, but I didn’t got enough time to take picture. Congratulations!

Would I go to this event next year? Definitely, with my own stand!

One great thing about recession is that people are more willing to do networking. I have heard few people saying that networking doesn’t really help businesses and it is waste of time. I have been networking for last half year and can tell you that people do not know how to do networking. Here is some 10 tips that might help you network better.

1. Do not sell

Everyone fails on this. You go to networking event to meet people, introduce your business to others and learn new things. Remember that each person has around 500 contacts behind him. If this person can’t help your business, it might be that one of his friends are in need of your services. So how about stop selling and start to do some networking.

2. It’s not all about you

The person you talk with is the most important person at that moment. You should try to help him in any possible way by give him advice, your contacts or introducing him to others. Remember the law of reciprocity. If you give something, people feel obligated to give you something back.

3. Make yourself noticable

When I first went to Start Your Own business course and there was lady with small red mini skirts and big red high heel shoes, I thought she is very unusual. But after quite a few networking sessions I noticed that people who network regular keep those touches on. I have seen at least two guys who always keep funny hat on, or girls who wear red clothes. I have a hat and people do recognise me after seeing it only on twitter or LinkedIn.

4. Find the right networking event for you

It’s not true that you go to all networking events and they all will be viable for you. Find the ones that are most suited for your business and do research beforehand. If you have a list of people attending, look up them and decide whom you want to talk with. If there isn’t anyone you want to meet – don’t waste your time and don’t go there.

5. Do talks & presentations

While people are very affraid from talking in front of others, it is almost the only way to introduce yourself to everyone. People will be more at ease to approach you after.

6. Do Follow Ups

There is no point for you going to networking events if you don’t follow up people you met. Don’t sit at office and hope that they gonna call you. Send them e-mail, call them and remind about your talk.

7. Don’t lie

If you don’t remember somebody ask for his name or business card. If you don’t know what person is talking about, ask him. Don’t pretend you know those things. It usually leads to worse case scenarios!

8. Try to talk with everyone

Standing and chatting with one person all evening won’t bring you much opportunities. Go around, talk with everyone and return to persons you are most interested in. I have heard that most best spot for networking is near the food and drink stand. You keep returning there, pour tea for somebody and start talk.

9. Don’t do networking too often

Firstly you won’t have time to follow up with everyone and secondly you will be very tired unless you are super sociable person. I had around 4 networking events last week and I was very, very tired after.

This is your chance to get some business, so go do some networking!

Who said I’m not artist? I can draw on canvas just like anyone else. Other canvas drawings and people photos will be up on Networth Gallery soon enough.

Yep, I attended my first NetWorth event and it was quite valuable. If I can get for 50 EUR good food, good wine, free canvas drawing (by myself), lot of good networking and some news, I’m quite happy. And doing networking while drawing is fun. I heard they had barbecue last year near Stephan’s Green which was great networking success.

To be honest I have been to so much networking events by now that most of the people I met I knew already or knew somebody related to them. However, they were all very valuable contacts to me and I found some business opportunities. I would definetly recommend checking out NetWorth. Their next event is 9th March 2009 – Networth KPMG – Stokes Place, Dublin 2 and as I understood it will be together with PLATO group. I was actually amazed how quickly NetWorth responded to my application through web. I’m used to waiting few days till somebody sends me a mail about it but there I got call in next 5min.

Last week I joined yet another networking event – this time speed networking. Provided by Signature Networking event took place in fashonable Trinity Capital Hotel.

For those who don’t know what is speed networking – it is quite similar to the speed dating. But in 1h you get around 20 contacts, hear about their companies and tell them about yours. Each of you have around 1.5 minutes to pitch and ask questions. After speed networking you can go and talk with people who you are interested in, have a drink and have a nice food. And of course most important part is to follow up after.

Signature Networking events are organised by Juddy, very orgnized and responsive person. Here is her picture.

Events usually takes place once per month and people are every time different. This was my third already and it is definitely worth it.

While speed networking is something new to Ireland, I have seen it also in Women Networking events and SFA events. However Signature Speed Networking is the only one that provides it as separate events.

“The Irish Internet Association (IIA) is the professional body for those conducting business via the internet from Ireland. It has been and remains one of the driving forces behind the adoption of the medium. Established in 1997, the IIA provides leadership to enterprises and society conducting business in Ireland.”

Last year we joined different associations and networking groups but couldn’t meet our target audience through them. I believe IIA is the right choice for us, see post about joining at IIA blog.

This post is dedicated to IGOpeople as part of Tuesday Push.

I started to use IGOpeople right after I stopped to use Yammer. When I joined IGOpeople I found a lot of people I know and the topics that are interesting to read. While Yammer e-mail announcements I found really annoying, I love IGOpeople weekly digest. It keeps me on track of all the things happening in my groups and who said what. I can also rate topics I like and contact people directly. It keeps track of everything I did and others did – it so it’s really great.

So few things I liked about the IGOpeople was:
- Dell Limerick group – it is really great idea and a lot of positive feedback from people
- Keiretsu group (as I do love everything related to Japan and would love this to be implemented in Ireland)
- I put up my own topic and got a lot of valuable responses
- I got twitter accounts for people related to IT & Business in Ireland. I always try to get grow my network and this is great way of doing it
- I joined 5 Fav Books group and got good idea which books to read next

I forgot to blog about last Open Coffee so I’m taking opportunity to blog about today’s one.

When I first came across Open Coffee site and it said “informal event for web / business people to get together and chat about anything and everything” – I didn’t believe it. Comon’ if it is meeting, why in cafe and why such a name?

I went to meeting in October and was the only girl there for 2h. Believe me or not, it made me very uncomfortable. This time there were Andrea (thanks for saving me!) and I felt much, much more into it.

So what do people do in Open Coffee? First, they drink coffee and eat breakfast. And second they talk. I take notebook with me every time, because there is so much to learn about. People is either very technical or very business and they come with some reason to this meeting. I go for networking and news in IT. Others come to get help with website or coding. And then there are people with great ideas like ALT.NET.

Happily enough I sat by the table of ALT.NET. It is a self-organizing, ad-hoc community of developers bound by a desire to improve ourselves, challenge assumptions, and help each other pursue excellence in the practice of software development (I copied this sentence from net). You can read more at their site. They will be starting regular meetings shortly.

I also got few ideas for fast reading techniques, better presentations and mind mapping. And most of all – I enjoyed talk with great people. Here is some photos. Again sorry for the quality of them, but my husbands computer is broken and I can’t get to all the photo enchantment programs.

Friday was great night out for all us female entrepreneurs from IBW forum.  Usually when you go to networking events you expect to talk only about business, swap as much business cards as possible and politely leave. Well, that doesn’t happen in women networking.

While a lot of people don’t see difference between men and women entrepreneurs, they are almost like two different worlds. Most of the women who works from home feels lonely. We need to communicate. When men do business they don’t care about their kids, but women has to still prepare meals, do all housework, take care of childcare and play with kids. When something doesn’t work out, men just has this “chill out” attitude. But women get emotional and over worried about things. And that’s why we are often more hardworking then men (and they do not notice that!).

But still – we make it work – we do our accounts, we do small works for previous employers, we work over nights, we get some extra income in our family. It is great honor to be one of you girls

Here is some photos from yesterday (sorry for red eyes, my husbands computer with all the cool photo editing programs are broken):

p.s. Before event I was trying to memorize people and what they do. I failed. I remember just people I was sitting nearby. I really should find some way to memorize faces / names / what they do.
p.s2. It’s very hard for me to write word “entrepreneurs”. I have to google every time for right spelling.

The following events might be interesting to you if you are one of those : IT, entrepreneur or just love to have fun.

There is 3 events very close by I would love to attend:

• Tomorrow is meeting of IBW forum members. This is great place to meet other female entrepreneurs and see how they are doing in current recession situation.
• Second one is on Saturday named Open Coffee Dublin. If you read my blog, you probably know about it already – it’s great IT networking event. Just go and see what’s new in technology and have a drink of coffee.
• Third event not so great but still a big fun is DLREB organised Recharge Festival happening in People’s Park. “Misery is expected to peak on January 21st which has been pinpointed by experts as the worst day of the year.” is what they write on their site so go and relax on Sunday.

Other events is not so close but still needs to be mentioned:

1. January Connector Meetup on 22nd of Jan (what to expect: “You can expect to meet a multi-national mix of bloggers, marketers, designers, web entrepreneurs, photographers, musicians, digital filmmakers & PR people among others.”)
2. Lightwave’09 – 23rd Jan -20th Feb in Science Gallery (what to expect: “a unique chance to experiment with illumination in the company of a bright and buzzing community of scientists, engineers, philosophers and techno-artists who are passionate about the visible spectrum.”)
3. HubSpot Webinar 23rd Jan, sign up for it now and last one was worth it (what to expect: “5 Tips for Advanced B2B Business Blogging – Free Marketing Webinar”)
4. First Tuesday 27th Jan (“The Recession and what it means for Telecommunications”)
5. Net Imperative Dublin Roadshow organised by IIA 28th Jan (FREE one-day conference which will bring you up to speed on successful digital marketing for your business.)
6. DubTwestival 12th Feb, sign up for it on Facebook or follow on twitter (it is event for all twitterfanatics)
7. Irish Blog Awards 21st Feb, unfortunately happening in Cork and I might not get there
8. Future of Web Apps 6th Mar (what to expect “Our aim is to excite, educate and unite you. We want you to go out and build the next big thing. Let’s all abandon our laptops and gather for a day of refreshment, ideas and fun. Rock on!”)
9. ossBarCamp 28th Mar, I expect it to be great fun, but follow on twitter for more info
10. BarCamp Belfast 25th Apr (I went to CreativeCamp in Belfast in summer and it was a blast!)

Don’t forget to note them in your diary so I can meet you

Today I used twitter a lot, because I was planning out my social media plan and I had to get all ideas I could. However, I found few things on twitter annoying:
1) People not always answer me. Of course, I understand that they are following 100+ people and can’t see all updates.. but still – its very annoying
2) on my “follower” list was over 20 environmental, eco and green twitters. I’m not against anything green, but it is somehow annoying that they all are following me. So I decided to protect my updates. And as I did so, they magically disappeared and I didn’t even need to remove them.

To be honest, now I will feel more free to post my updates, knowing that not everyone in world can read them.