Speed Networking Afternoon for LisLIG

LiSLIG Western Cape invitation:

We come to LiSLIG events and listen to speakers, but how much do we
really know about each other? Join us for a
fun-filled, high-energy afternoon of

**SPEED NETWORKING**

-----------------------------------

Date: Tuesday 15 November 2005
Time: 14:00 for 14:30 (includes tea/coffee and cake)
Cost: R25.00 for LIASA/LiSLIG members / R35.00 for non-members

Please deposit your payment into the LiSLIG bank account.
Please *include your name * in the reference section of the deposit
slip.
Account Name : LiSLIG Western Cape
Account Number : 62080746856
Bank : First National Bank
Branch : Rondebosch
Branch Code : 201509

Venue: Tafelberg Gardens Tavern,
6 Rhoodehek Terrace, Hope Street, Gardens
(Map available upon request)

RSVP: by Fri. 11 Nov 2005
to Sharon Jongens: Sharon.Jongens@za.nampak.com
or tel. (021) 590-5800
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SPEED NETWORKING
Definition from MacMillan English Dictionary:

"speed networking"; also "speed-networking"; noun [U] /spid netwk/ a
method of making a potential business contact by
briefly talking to a series of people at an organised event and
exchanging contact details

'... Speed networking, as it's more often known, is a relatively new
urban trend, increasingly popular in a world where
social "capital" - who we know and how they can help us - is prized.'
(The Guardian, 7th February 2005)

'Newcastle-based agency Contact25 goes a step further and gets speed
networkers to rate each of the contacts they meet,
on a scale of one to five on the basis of how useful they might be ...'
(BBC News, 8th December 2004)

You've heard of speed-dating, an organised event attended by dozens of
single people who talk briefly to potential
partners and decide whether they might want to see any of them again.
Combine this with the idea of making professional,
rather than romantic, contacts, and what do you get? - speed networking.
Speed networking is based on the idea that the
usual way businesses, especially small businesses, gain new contacts or
clients is by so-called networking - meeting to
talk to people and exchange ideas. Traditional networking events, like
conferences, are often not very productive because
people tend to gravitate towards those they already know, and wouldn't
normally walk up to absolute strangers, even
though there are likely to be people in the room who would make
promising contacts. In a dedicated speed networking
event, people are given a structured environment in which they can talk
to people they wouldn't otherwise have come into
contact with, and can quickly decide whether there is a mutual interest
without the need for polite or unnecessarily long
conversations.

The exact arrangements vary, but in a typical speed networking event,
people are given five minutes or less to talk to a
potential contact, and are then moved on - often to the sound of a
buzzer. At the end of the meeting, business cards can
be exchanged, thereby sowing the seeds for a new commercial
relationship. Like speed-dating before it, speed networking
has in recent months proven very popular on both sides of the Atlantic,
leading to the establishment of dedicated
websites such as speed-networking.net. A related countable noun speed
networker describes participants, although there is
as yet only limited evidence for an intransitive verb speed network.

Background Speed networking is of course modelled on speed-dating, a
term that emerged in 1999, originating from a Los
Angeles Jewish community. The more recent idea of combining business
networking and speed-dating to form speed networking
is also thought to have started in the US, though it seemed to emerge
almost simultaneously in the UK as an innovative
way to forge new business contacts.

Another recent expression in a related context is pink slip party, used
mainly in the US to refer to an organised event
where unemployed people have the opportunity to meet potential
employers. Pink slip in the expression refers to an
official notice given to an employee detailing the termination of an
employment. It also occurs informally as a
transitive verb, pink-slip, meaning 'to give a termination of employment
notice'.

http://www.macmillandictionary.com/new-words/050919-speed-networking.htm