Last night I hosted the first ever Sports Networker event in London along with my good friends over at iStadia. It was a big success with nearly 200 top sports professionals in the area who attended (along with two world record holding athletes… see images below).
It was fun for me to throw an event over seas, seeing that I hosted close to 20 events in the U.S. last year. I was amazed when a few people told me it was the best networking event they had ever been to (they must not go to many networking events in London 🙂
The venue was extremely nice, but too small, and nearly impossible to find since there was no sign on the door and it was down a dark alley. There was a major traffic jam in the doorway as people were trying to find their name tags and head on in. And we were unable to make any announcements, as previously planned, due to the loudness of the venue and no mic to communicate with.
I guess my point is, you don’t have to have everything perfect to create an event where people find massive value in. As long as you bring quality people together, and help them make positive connections, then you have done a good job. I doubt there has been one event produced where everything went as planned.
Make sure you start bringing people together locally, nationally, or globally. We already do this online through our various blogs, and social networking sites, but let’s get more personal, intimate, and build stronger relationships by connecting face to face. What do you say? Watch my video below where I share more on this topic, and I would love to hear your thoughts about throwing events in the comments section.
Here are some images from the London Sports Networker Event. Thanks again to Eight Club, and David Fuller for giving us the venue. And thanks to our sponsor Tim Gentles from Brands in Football and Football Fans Census for helping make it an even greater event! Here are some pictures from London.
Great event, Lewis. I’ve been to a lot of networking events in London and this was one of the best. Thanks for organising it.
Doug
Yep, I totally agree, Lewis! All the social media in the world can’t replace the value of face-to-face interaction. (Enhance it, yes… replace it, no!) And I don’t think events need to be big or complicated. I’m hosting monthly meets with just 10 people or so, giving everyone a chance to really connect and help one another. I’ll look forward to your next St. Louis event!
I think what we learned last night – which is what you’re saying really – is just do it. We’ve talked about having offline events for a long time and now we’ve done one we can learn from it. Of course, it was invaluable to partner up with you and David Fuller, and we’ll continue in this spirit.
Thanks so much guys… it was fun to connect and meet all of the awesome people in London. Can’t wait to do it again soon!