I have to say that they lived up their reputation in every way.  I felt welcomed as a guest and all the ambassadors were super helpful in introducing me to the types of people.  I made some new connections that look like they will turn into lasting business.  That’s what it is all about in the end.

To make a short blog post even shorter I will say that IF I join a chamber this year it will be Dulles.  It is nice to see some one looking out for the (very) small guys in business.  Far too many other organizations have well deserved reputations for looking out only for the big guys and their hefty membership fees.

For $20 (non chamber member price) I got 4 minutes with about 10 to 15 different business owners or reps from larger companies. There was the standard continental breakfast of coffee, tea, muffins, etc. I ran into a few old contacts from my days as a Reston Chamber member, so it was good to catch up.

It works like this. There is the standard hotel conference room with a bunch of long tables with chairs on either site. Each pair of chairs has a number in the middle of the table; 1 though 30 or so. When you get into the room you just pick a chair and have a seat. The event coordinator tells you that one side of the table will not move, the other side will get up and move over one seat when the allotted time is up. You get 2 minutes each to talk about your biz; what we do, who we are, good leads, etc. Then the coordinator shouts out that every one needs to move; rinse repeat about 10 to fifteen times.

The event was pretty cool. I was able to make a bunch of new contacts very quickly. I think I even may get some new Web work out of a few contacts. The only downside to speed networking is that it is VERY noisy. I felt like I was in a sports bar with the big game on in the background, the only thing mission was drinks and smoke. I also liked that there was no hard sell by the chamber to get you to join. I hate when I go to an event like this and get assailed with “join us” material and “ambassadors.”

Would I do Speed Networking again? Absolutely. I love meeting a bunch of new contacts in quick and structured fashion. For the price you can’t beat it. There was a good mix of big and small companies, plus it wasn’t saturated with bankers, real estate agents, and financial planners (no offense to you guys but you are everywhere).

I will be hitting more local networking events and giving my reviews of them here. Check back for more news! Next up the Dulles Regional’s monthly evening mixer on Feb 19^th.