Why hosting networking events is beneficial to your business growth

Grow­ing a busi­ness isn’t a sim­ple task. Expand­ing the enter­prise must be a con­sis­tent process, whether it is start­ing or estab­lished. One way to achieve this is by host­ing net­work­ing events.

You may have heard of net­work­ing events or have attend­ed one. How­ev­er, you haven’t tried host­ing one for your com­pa­ny yet. While attend­ing net­work­ing events can make your busi­ness known, host­ing them may dou­ble the ben­e­fits.

Host­ing a net­work­ing event can be daunt­ing, espe­cial­ly when oper­at­ing on a bud­get. Don’t wor­ry, because this occa­sion doesn’t nec­es­sar­i­ly mean it has to be grand. Here, we out­line what net­work­ing events mean, how to organ­ise them, and the ben­e­fits you can reap for your busi­ness growth.

1. What are networking events, and how do you organise one?

Net­work­ing events are gath­er­ings designed for busi­ness pro­fes­sion­als and indus­try experts to engage and estab­lish pro­fes­sion­al con­nec­tions. The num­ber of atten­dees can range from 50 to thou­sands, depend­ing on how big or small the event will be. There will also be keynote speak­ers that lead dis­cus­sions about spe­cif­ic top­ics, and you could be one of them when you’re the event’s host.

If you plan to host a net­work­ing event, here’s how to organ­ise one:

• Out­line your bud­get and resources.
• Define the event’s pur­pose (e.g., host­ing lec­tures, fundrais­ing, recruit­ing, con­nect­ing pro­fes­sion­als of the same demo­graph­ic).
• Deter­mine the tar­get audi­ence.
• Choose a for­mat (casu­al or for­mal).
• Set the date(s) to check the avail­abil­i­ty of your cho­sen venue.
• Book the venue. Hotel lob­bies are ide­al for small to mid-sized gath­er­ings, while com­mu­ni­ty halls or con­ven­tion cen­tres are for work­shops and lec­tures.
• Send out invi­ta­tions to those you wish to par­tic­i­pate.
• Pro­mote the event on social media, in emails, or in whichev­er way you like. How­ev­er, in doing this, you must ensure the pro­tec­tion of your com­pa­ny data while using the world wide web. Installing an enter­prise VPN could be your rem­e­dy for this.

Include pre-reg­is­tra­tion details to deter­mine how much food and chairs are need­ed. Man­ag­ing these tick­et­ing and reg­is­tra­tion sys­tems can be time-con­sum­ing. So rather than wast­ing time on cre­at­ing sep­a­rate forms, you can have a mini-site done with built-in wid­gets for tick­et­ing and pre-reg­is­tra­tion. You can go for this mobile-friend­ly and straight­for­ward option or you can opt for a com­plete web­site for an advanced option, where you can also embed your reg­is­tra­tion wid­get.

Dur­ing the event, you will facil­i­tate the inter­ac­tions and pro­vide food and drinks to the atten­dees. After­wards, you must fol­low them up to get feed­back.

2. The benefits of hosting networking events

Know­ing what you need and how to fuel busi­ness growth is sub­stan­tial. At the same time, know­ing who can help you achieve it is equal­ly essen­tial. This is how host­ing net­work­ing events estab­lish­es valu­able busi­ness con­nec­tions. With that in mind, here are the oth­er ben­e­fits of host­ing a net­work­ing event.

Enhancing brand awareness

Brand aware­ness is a crit­i­cal aspect of busi­ness growth. When you host a net­work­ing event, par­tic­i­pants become aware of your com­pa­ny name, ele­vat­ing your brand’s aware­ness.

Brand aware­ness is your company’s recog­ni­tion among pro­fes­sion­als in the indus­try. Host­ing net­work­ing events can enhance this aspect through effi­cient mar­ket­ing and pro­mo­tion­al efforts. Addi­tion­al­ly, you can inter­act with your guests to talk about your brand dur­ing the event.

Meeting potential mentor

When plan­ning a net­work­ing event, one of the things you’ll like­ly con­sid­er is invit­ing speak­ers. They are often indus­try experts and can be your men­tors. You can also inter­act with poten­tial men­tors among the guests. These peo­ple are like-mind­ed pro­fes­sion­als who can pro­vide wis­dom, moti­va­tion, and knowl­edge to influ­ence your business’s growth.

Exchange of ideas

No mat­ter your busi­ness sit­u­a­tion, you can meet peo­ple who went through your cur­rent posi­tion at your net­work­ing events. They can give you fresh ideas and dif­fer­ent per­spec­tives on over­com­ing it, and you can give them sig­nif­i­cant knowl­edge to help them progress. With this, your net­work­ing events are great oppor­tu­ni­ties to exchange ideas and learn from them.

Creating jobs and opportunities

When you host net­work­ing events, you’re open­ing your busi­ness to col­lab­o­ra­tions, spon­sor­ships, and part­ner­ships. Engag­ing with var­i­ous busi­ness pro­fes­sion­als can form these con­nec­tions, which expand your con­tacts, attract new ven­tures, and help you find more clients. This way, your com­pa­ny can devel­op more inno­va­tions and gain rev­enue, sig­nif­i­cant­ly impact­ing busi­ness growth.

If you hold a career-relat­ed net­work­ing event, job seek­ers can attend and acquire insights on how to build their pro­files. They may also be able to famil­iarise them­selves with the poten­tial careers you offer, so when you cre­ate job open­ings, your com­pa­ny will be the first to come to mind.

Building social skills

Social skills are a must for every busi­ness own­er. When host­ing net­work­ing events, you will need them all the time. Your net­work­ing events can help if you need to improve your social skills. As the host, you will push your­self to talk to the guests, grad­u­al­ly build­ing your con­fi­dence and speak­ing abil­i­ties.

Good com­mu­ni­ca­tion and pub­lic speak­ing skills can help you attract sup­port from the guests. You can attain this through intel­li­gent per­sua­sion, influ­enc­ing their opin­ions and per­cep­tions of your busi­ness. Addi­tion­al­ly, you can con­vey your com­pa­ny’s pur­pose and vision intel­li­gent­ly, which is valu­able in entic­ing poten­tial investors and busi­ness part­ners.

Adept social skills also help avoid mis­un­der­stand­ings. Since you can see com­mon­al­i­ties in var­i­ous per­spec­tives, you can pro­mote insight­ful dis­cus­sions about busi­ness mat­ters. To build these con­nec­tions after the event, you may also tell your guests that they can fol­low up with peo­ple through email after net­work­ing events.

Finding new talents

Let’s say one of your employ­ees resigned, or you had to lay off a few. That could be a sig­nif­i­cant loss for your company’s dai­ly oper­a­tions. This is how host­ing a net­work­ing event opens the prospect of hir­ing new tal­ents, espe­cial­ly when you strug­gle to fill the vacan­cies left.

Since net­work­ing events can be an oppor­tu­ni­ty to start recruit­ment cam­paigns, you can show­case your com­pa­ny to tal­ent­ed pro­fes­sion­als. Show­cas­ing means elab­o­rat­ing on why your com­pa­ny is the ide­al work­place to utilise and fos­ter their skills.

Providing insights on your business performance

Net­work­ing events can help you mea­sure your business’s per­for­mance in the indus­try. Talk­ing to guests or spear­head­ing an open forum can pro­vide feed­back and insights on your company’s cur­rent posi­tion in a com­pet­i­tive mar­ket. These insights can indi­cate strengths to con­tin­ue and weak­ness­es to improve.

3. Start hosting networking events to expand your business

If you seek inno­v­a­tive plat­forms to expand your busi­ness, try host­ing net­work­ing events. They are great avenues to expand your busi­ness hori­zons and ensure your company’s progress. The good thing is that they don’t have to be lux­u­ri­ous, which is ide­al for small busi­ness­es. Even a small-scale net­work­ing event is a mean­ing­ful step towards growth and long-term suc­cess.

Weezevent makes plan­ning your net­work­ing events eas­i­er with its tick­et­ing and reg­is­tra­tion, access con­trol and mar­ket­ing and CRM solu­tions.

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