Birmingham Screen Image Network and Networking

This is actually a big answer I gave to some questions regarding the Birmingham Screen Image Network that I attend once a month at Millennium Point. It took me a while to write it but hopefully it will be useful and interesting.

Here are the questions-

What makes a good network?

Why do you go?

And what do you want from a network?

And here is my Answer-

I've attended all sorts of different networking sessions for both creatives and business people, in lots of different venues. I enjoy the BSIN sessions as they are regular, the venue is good and it is easy to find out who is there, what they do and then I can decide who I want to talk to. Rather than the scatter gun approach which occasionally happens at larger sessions.

I think the venue is very important, the worst venues for myself have been bars and pubs. I find the main problem with these is they are to noisy due to loud music and are often being shared with members of the public making them unnecessarily crowded. I found that people end up getting hammered and it just seems pointless talking to some of them as they're totally incoherent.

A venue should have features that provide opportunities for conversation. A drinks station is always good. If I run out of people to talk to and cant see any open groups then I normally get a glass of water and engage the next person to come over to the drinks table. When food is provided finger food works best especially with tall tables that you have to stand at. As you can remain mobile and easily start up a conversation with a new group/table. I think it would be good to put spikes on the walls as it can be to easy for attendees to hide at the side and this would force them into the middle of the room.

Recently I've been attending sessions that have art, interactives, prototypes, puzzles and other assorted conversation props that are great for facilitating networking.

Another style of networking I've enjoyed is speed networking. You all sit in two rows facing one another and have about 60 seconds each to talk, swap cards and move on when the whistle blows. When the speed networking has finished everyone carries on with regular networking but now you know who everyone is and can carry on promising conversations.

Finally the most important thing for me is the people. I preferably want a good mix of creatives, animators, film makers, artists, sound people, writers, photographers, actors etc and preferably some business people, different entrepreneurs who are interested in the skills on offer by the creatives. Most importantly the attendees have to have a good attitude ie polite, friendly and be prepared to try to make conversation.

I go to BSIN each month for a variety of reasons. I enjoy the structure, each person introduces themselves, who they are, then news is shared and interesting debates normally arise. Although the attendances are low there is normally a couple of new faces each month. I have made some useful contacts, I get to hear of news, events and different opportunities coming up.

I think it would be good bring the Screen and Music networks into the same room for the last 20mins to further share news, info, leads etc

When paired with the free dinner and creative networks events after its a really enjoyable and useful way to spend an afternoon.

I also go to support the network and hopefully support the creative scene in Birmingham by attending. Attendances are low which is disappointing, although I wouldn't want the groups to have massive, if it could get up to 15/20 each week that would be great. The only way the group will grow is by people continuing to attend, talking and promoting the meet ups.

Networking

Today I attended the Business growth show hosted at Drayton Manor hotel in Tamworth Birmingham. Please read on for my experience and maybe tips on networking. 

I had been tempted to attend one of these networking events for a while though had been putting it off as networking isn't the most fun. All my previous networking has been pretty much animation industry specific. Previous networking i've done has been at a variety of festivals and animation events in mostly Wales and a little in Birmingham. The festivals have been the most fun to network at. Annecy especially as just getting into the events is hard enough though definitely worth pursuing as there's lots of famous industry people and free food and drinks. The Networking at Annecy wasn't necessarily successful as it didn't lead to much in the way of work but was fun floundering in the Grand Hotel having climbed over the fence to attend. So I wasn't sure how a pile of business people would react to an animation business at an event like this. 

As it happens it all went really well. I arrived a little before nine and received a warm welcome from  Becky and Jo who allowed me to sign up for the speed networking and the two seminars. The event took place in a large hall divided into two, half for stands for various businesses and the other half reserved for speed networking. 

The speed networking began around nine. I was a little reluctant about doing this as I wasn't sure if this was the right audience for Blades Animation. I'd come prepared with a stack of showreels and some businesses cards. I didn't decided to attend the event until the day before (monday) so was a little rusty on my elevator pitch. Being the professional I am I knocked up a new one on the bus ride over. Fortunately I've done lots of pitching before so it was more of a personal refresher. I went with Frank Boyds structure for elevator pitching.  As follows:

Introduce yourself

What your project is

Who it is for

Why it is important

What you want.

This was obviously supported with the famous Richard Blades charm :). This structure was adapted on the fly depending on who I was talking to and how they were reacting etc. If anyone is wondering what I was wearing I decided against going with a suit as its not the industry I work in and thought it would be misleading if I went with a shirt and tie. It was important to me that I don't miss represent myself as some one that works in an office. I went with comfy shoes, trousers, white t-shirt under a blue v-neck jumper and a smart atticus jacket cos Im a punk :).

The actual speed networking was excellent and a genuinely great way to get chatting to people I would recommend it to anyone. The first couple of people I blundered through a little until my pitch was all set in my head. Fortunately all the people I spoke to were really interesting from a wide variety of backgrounds and businesses. By the time the speed networking had finished it was annoyingly obvious that I hadn’t brought enough business cards. I'd enough for the rest of the day but not enough for any more speed networking which was a shame. 

Next up I checked out the different stands and followed on some of the conversations started during the networking. Part of my reluctance for coming to events of this kind is this type of networking that relies on cold approaches. Again everyone was really friendly and was unlike some previous events i've been to where people stand in closed groups. There were loads of open groups of people who were chatty and eager to meet others. If I ran out of people to talk to I headed for the water point as its really easy to strike up a conversation while people are getting drinks. My main opener was to simply say "hey hello" and "ask if they were having a good time". During these periods I handed out most of my remaining business cards. As mentioned before I spoke to a huge variety of business people from a magician, website designers, event planners, copywriters the list really goes on. 

A lunch buffet was provided which was a nice bonus, consisting of pizzas, sandwiches and sausage rolls. Either side of lunch was a seminar held in a separate room. The Morning session was with Shiv Ahluwalia entitled Sales Communication for Hungry Entrepreneurs who was excellent. A great mix of audience involvement, humour and sales education delivered in a relaxed manner.

The Afternoon was hosted by Jo Simpson and entitled Better Decision Making For The Business Owners. I had covered similar subjects to this Seminar in the Nesta work shop I attended as part of the Transform@lab. It was about identify business values to help inform the businesses decision making which I believe is really important and another valuable seminar and message. 

Unfortunately I didn't stay for the whole day as I ran out of business cards and I was feeling particularly worn out. (I ran the Eden Marathon on Sunday and am still recovering) I headed off about an hour before the events end. On the whole a great day out that I believe yielded some potential leads and loads of useful contacts. I look forward to the next Business Growth Show!

Richard