MegaSack DRAW - This year's winner is user - rgwb
We will be in touch
Anyone have any experience with these? I've been invited to join a local group, and as someone trying to get into corporate / commercial photography it could be ideal.
It's a referral based business networking group.
You may be better with your local chamber of commerce / rotary club / masons.
I wouldn't pay to attend breakfast meetings [s]glorified coffee mornings[/s] with wannabe estate agents and landscape gardeners.
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Load of sales people from well established reputable businesses I found ... (sorry but my sarcasm dial seems to be stuck on 11)
you know the ones Double Glazing, Driveways, Weird Eastern Fitness stuff, Lifestyle Gurus, Financial Advisers, Utilities companies, snake oil.....
All strutting their stuff... same as you, got invited to a meeting once.... and only once. Walked out after about half an hour. An awful lot of people who talked about "doing business" and how they were "in business" and how succesful they were "in business"... nearly gagged on the cheap aftershave, perfume and bullshit.
Its an american sales idea ergo it's all TEAM TEAM TEAM... HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY... which promptly falls flat on it's face when met with British Cynicism.
Avoid.....
It depends entirely on the make up and leadership of the group. It is also much more than just networking, you are expected to bring regular referrals and refer within your group. Some are more evangelical than others - our Hull office joined a really nice group and it worked well for a couple of years, it has now faded but the networks of contacts is still very vibrant, just outside the BNI framework. I attended one in Sheffield and it was all a bit high pressure to cross refer, too many idiots for me to risk referring any of my clients or contacts. They used to offer guest member ship to a couple of meetings before you had to commit - if they still do this I would try it out, you could drop lucky.
Also, do you have a website/portfolio and contact details - we use lots of snappers but it would depend upon the style of work and location. Cheers, Paul.
Yeah, that was kinda what I thought... Though the people there weren't too bad on the whole, there were a few that "clicked" if you like.
Chamber of Commerce though. Good shout.
**edit** Cheers for that Paul - I'm actually based in Hull, though it was the Beverley group I attended - I can have one more guest meeting, which I definitely plan to use! Website is www.cleanslateimages.co.uk (wedding and portrait focused at the moment, I'm planning on setting up a second one for commercial stuff) and all contact details are on there.
Blimey Will that's spooky - it seems that we are members of Beverley and you have met one of my colleagues - big tatooed bloke with specs and a goatee called Kev - he just said he was speaking to you this morning.
Judging by your MTB pics you've practically ridden past our offices in Hope too, next time give me a shout and pop in for a brew.
I literally just spoke to Kev on the phone. I have more tattoos than him (I think!) but he's definitely bigger than me! Small world eh? I shall look you up next time we're out there, it's not rare that we're around Hope and Edale way.