Networking can be rewarding, exciting, and ho-hum boring when you feel you're not in your element. I prefer to be running barefoot in daisy fields flinging analogies about butterflies, petals and landing pages. But, its not considered business-like to be so silly.
The answer to the perfect way to find new partners and maybe pitch some clever business ideas to companies is the brainchild of Chris Ridings and Denise Russell, called Speed Pitches.
How does it work?
Stolen from the website:
"At each event we aim to have around 30 SEO companies, covering a full range of services, specialities and budgets.
You will be matched with the 12-15 SEO companies which seem best suited to your needs, based on the information you submitted and will receive a 'dance card' when you register on the evening detailing who will be SpeedPitching to you.
You will spend 5 minutes with each of these companies during two hour long sessions (each with 9 x 5 minute pitches and a couple of minutes between each to find your next table). We will try and space your pitches so that you can refresh your drink and take a convenience break a couple of times in each session."
Tell Us More!
Some of you may be familiar with the SpeedPitches Partners. Chris Ridings is author of the seminal PageRank Explained Paper and founder of SearchGuild.com forums.
Denise Russell, commonly known as Gurtie, is a businesswoman and Freelance SEO consultant, who is an active participant in various online forums.
Together they have produced a new service that intends to match "Busy Business People with Suppliers". This includes those from the Search Engine Optimization and Marketing industries.
Where is the first one?
The debut of SpeedPitch will be in London, the 18th of May, 2006 at the CITY GOLF BAR.
"People know they need SEO", says Denise, "but they're also aware that there are huge variations in the quality of the optimization provided and lots of conflicting advice. Business people have good instincts and trust them, they can tell within a few minutes of meeting someone if they could work together and don't want to spend another 30 sitting through a full presentation just to be polite, this is a great way of reducing a long list of potential suppliers to just a couple that you know you'd be happy to work with."
:: posted by Kim Krause Berg on 3/27/2006 10:42:00 PM
Kim is a Member of the Usability Professionals
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