Networking isn’t something that comes naturally to me. Growing up I was incredibly shy and quiet, and while I am less shy now I still do have my moments!
Despite this I have been trying to get out there to meet new people. Yesterday, I attended two networking events – i-genius cafe London in the morning, and nfptweetup in the evening.
i-genius cafe London
The i-genius event, held at Tinderbox Cafe in Angel, was an informal networking event for social entrepreneurs. I read about the event on Twitter – I had not heard of i-genius before, and didn’t really know what to expect but decided to go because the organisation sounded interesting.
i-genius is a world community of social entrepreneurs in over 200 countries. They organise events and training courses in social entrepreneurship around the world.
Networking at the i-genius event (Photo: Facebook)
Working from home can be quite hard sometimes as it can mean I don’t see and speak to as many people as I used to when working in an office. The i-genius event was a great way for me to start the day. I met some really inspiring people who are working in different fields and are achieving so much.
A lot of the people I spoke to had international businesses or experience, which I really enjoyed learning about. For example, Nancy Johnston – the Founder of Tengri – told me about how she decided to start her business during a trip to Mongolia. Nancy creates beautifully designed knitwear, using yak wool – a sustainable and eco-friendly alternative to cashmere – that looks good, feels good, and does good.
There is a really good description of why Nancy started Tengri and why yak wool is being used instead of cashmere on their crowdfunding page: www.crowdfunder.co.uk/tengri – please do take a look, and while you are there please do consider backing the campaign.
Half way through the event, we gathered together as a group and told each other a little about our work. This was a great way for us to learn about what the people we hadn’t spoken to are up to.
Chris from Youth Business International tells us about Global Entrepreneurship Week (Photo: Facebook)
Registering with i-genius is free. To find out more about i-genius please visit their website: www.i-genius.org
NFPtweetup
Yesterday was NFPtweetup’s 6th birthday! NFPtweetup, founded by Rachel Beer, are events for people who work at or with, charities and non-profit organisations and who are interested in harnessing the power of digital and social media, and other new technologies, to achieve their strategic objectives.
I have attended a couple of NFPtweetup’s in the past and have always found the events have given me a lot to think about.
At the event yesterday Luke Williams, Social Media Innovation Officer at RNLI, ran a Failure Swapshop where the audience share their failures and lessons learnt. I had never been to a Failure Swapshop before, and found it a really interesting experience.
The Failure Swapshop rules
The idea of standing up and sharing something you have failed at sounds really scary, and I wasn’t brave enough to take part last night, but now I have seen what a Failure Swapshop is like and how supportive people are I might be tempted to take part next time!
Matthew Matheson, Collaboration and Creativity Consultant at Nixon McInnes, then got us chatting in small groups about Christmas – the only rule was before each sentence we had to say ‘Yes And’. The next time we had to say ‘Yes But’ before each sentence – this was a lot more difficult, and led to a much more negative conversation. It was a great way to see that when brainstorming, and generally when having conversations, how important it is to encourage ideas rather than shoot them down.
I met really interesting people yesterday at both events and learnt a lot too. Events like i-genius and NFPtweetup are making me realise that networking isn’t so scary after all!
