5 types of business events that facilitate networking opportunities

Networking became a must nowadays when businessmen need relations in order to fulfill their goals. This is the reason why you should invest more of your resources in organizing business events that may attract people who are worthy of your network. Strengthening the relationships you have with people who are excellent in a domain might help you in the future more than you believe at the moment. What most people tend to forget about networking is that it is not centered on taking only, but on sharing. Settling trust between you and the person you are collaborating with is an absolute must. Without doing this, you won’t be able to ask for help when you’ll need it the most.

photo/ Pixels

Through the business events that you organize, you buy yourself a ticket to success, you raise your social profile and you give yourself access to new opportunities. This is why you should pay attention to all details that have to do with business events and try to impress your guests. People should gain a different perspective of what you do and who you are by simply attending one of your events. In case you can’t afford to organize such an event yourself yet, make sure to at least participate in one each time you have the chance.

Here are 5 ideas that will open many doors for you:  

Trade shows

Trade shows are one of the most popular business events that attract investors and influencers. During a trade show, you can either find sponsors for your soon-to-be-launched products or services, or you can establish partnerships with important people in the industry. The costs of putting together a trade show can go up to $30.000, depending on what you want from it. Trade shows include a booth stand for each person who wants to talk about what they are doing.

Each business person is responsible of coming up with a design for their booth, their trade show displays and to organize their presentation. You can ask for a small participation fee to cover some of the trade show event costs. Both startups and reputable brands will gather together in the same place, which automatically generates plenty of opportunities for networking. Trade shows are pretty popular nowadays, so it shouldn’t be difficult to organize one from scratch.

Appreciation events

Another good option for a business event that attracts many guests is represented by appreciation events. When your business is going well and you want to share your success with other people, appreciation events are just right. You can build connections with clients that helped your company grow or you can praise the employee that managed to generate a lot of profit in one month. Appreciation events will tighten the bonds between you and your employees, but will also bring you some networking opportunities.

By inviting other business owners to the event, you’ll get the chance to share your experience with them and also listen to their own story and latest updates regarding their businesses. The costs for an appreciation event are not as pricey as the ones for a trade show. A fancy appreciation event with a few hundreds of guests should cost around $10.000. Even though it seems a lot, the benefits of hosting such an event will be visible, and the relationships you will build might help you more than you believe in the future.  

Conferences

Have you ever attended a conference? As a business owner, you surely did. You probably noticed how open and friendly people are during conferences. They share ideas, they talk about solutions that they’ve previously implemented and they worked and many more other topics that can be helpful for your own situation. Imagine hosting a conference on your own. People will get to know what your business is all about, they will start asking questions about it and they might even get in touch with you for future reference or partnerships.

Yet a conference can get very expensive if you want to organize one of the huge impact and size. Luckily, a considerable part of your costs can be returned by setting up fees or the possibility for donations. Conferences should be oriented towards fixed target audiences. People who attend the respective conference need to have the same interests to be able to improve their expertise in the domain they work in.

Charity events

Use your current network of people to organize a charity event. Ask everyone to invite as many people as possible to this event. At the same time, try to restrict the target audience by choosing a cause that is related to your field of work. Tailor the event to the cause you chose and the people you invited. The costs may vary, but the cause behind the charity will be the one that matter after all. Charity events gather people with the same principles, ideas, and purposes in the same place, which is a great chance to better your social ties with people outside your current network.

Charity events are not difficult to organize. After selecting a cause, all you need to do is book a venue and let people know about the whole event. You can actually ask for a considerable fee for the participation tickets and use the money for the charity cause. Find an event ticketing management system and set things up a while before the big event. This way, you can calculate how much money the charity event will generate, so you know where the event is situated on the ladder of popularity.

Team buildings

Team buildings are the easiest way to improve your network within your company. You can ask your current employees to bring their friends or family to a team building and you instantly gain access to more people. By strengthening the relationships between you and your employees, between the employees themselves and between you and potential helpers, you are offering your company a chance to grow. Team buildings are usually the fuel of productivity for businesses, so go ahead and find some entertaining ideas for hosting one.

Author: Cynthia Madison

photo/ Gerd Altmann via pixabay