i think networking is the first step towards the growth of any enterprise, if done right it works like magic.

People interesed in offline networking in Brussels.


The Xème Cercle is a social and professional networking club. It aims at encouraging conviviality and exchanges of experiences among young professionals (around 25-55 years old) working in a mix of sectors in Brussels.

The Xème Cercle is a non-profit collaborative initiative that started in 2006. It is the first networking club in Brussels. The extensive and creative social calendar gives opportunities to professionals to take a break from their daily routine and to diversify their social life by meeting new faces.

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@Mr M, I think what we miss out on, on LinkedIn is the American way of networking. An introduction or a direct contact through mail is not seen as impolite, but as an opportunity to extend ones network. You never know how you can help each other in the future. Europeans would call this an opportunistic world view. Europeans want to feel some kind of control over there surroundings and the people that know them. Maybe it has to do with the fact that Europe has a long history of wars in which friends could be come foes with the blink of an eye. Where Americans only have known one war on their turf, about some “stupid moralistic idea”, (I am excluding the indian wars, because Americans do not perceive that as a war.)

And I think you are right, where marketing and networking have effect, it all depends on the age of the company.

@ NDOA & Luxe.
Indeed, both slogans are quite drastic and perhaps a bit exaggerating the message behind. It's true that knowing people and being soft-skilled is a good start, but only a start. Without any knowledge and/or experience, your story will be quite short, as well as your friendship like NDOA says. My opinion for the marketing mantra is more or less the same. When you're totally unknown, it is valuable that you get people to talk about you, even if it is slightly negative. Negative word-of-mouth is very viral, but make sure it is not about your core-business. In that case, I really don't see the advantages. So it's also valuable at the start. Of course, after establishing your brand on the market, you risk losing a lot of market-share when negative publicity is being spread. So yes, I agree on both for starting entrepreneurs, but disagree in the long run. It's business phase dependent.

Since quite some time now, I'm a member of LinkedIn. And although I agree that their invitation-system is quite straightforward, I haven't been able to see the real value of the platform. Put differently, I don't see how they make (a lot of) money because I haven't figured out why I should pay for being introduced through their system. I miss content and interactivity, two characteristics I find in this join2grow network. Nonetheless, the invitation-methodology of LinkedIn should be a best-practice for Join2grow.

Luxe I have heard that one mentioned in several occasions. It sound a bit like the marketing mantra: It does not matter what they say about you, as long as they are talking about you.

I find it a highly dangerous thought, because if "who we know" becomes more important than "what we know", knowledge becomes underrated. And if knowledge becomes less important, people will be less and less motivated to acquire it and develop it. Which in the end would mean, to exaggerate, that a engineer does not need to know anything about load baring capacity of materials, but only needs to know the right persons to build a bridge. So this adagio is most important to people who want to construct things that will stand the test of time.
However having friends in high places and knowing how to invoke their help and how to help them is always useful. The question will be if friends in high places will stay friends if all you can offer them is friendship?

Hello,

Having participated recently to a networking event organized by M4M (Managers for Managers), I discovered another nice slogan. Here it is: "It's not important what you know, but who you know", for sure more in a services'business than in an industrial business, but nowadays in Europe we're more knowlegde workers than manual workers.

Luxe

He said : "Tout ce que vous avez toujours voulu savoir sur la Vidéo est sur www.orangeclignotant.be "

It's interesting.

@NDOA

Thanks for the hint. It seems rather easy. I would even compare it with Second Life, where you ask also for friendship and you get immediately and interactively an answer (accept or reject)

Luxe

@ Alexis,

Thanks for the suggestion about Viadeo, I've checked it . It's interesting, but I prefer Linkedin.

Regards,

Luxe