Last night I hosted a networking event where Glenn Watkins, CEO of on-line network phenomena Ecademy talked about some of the future trends in networking.
In his talk Glenn described a recent trekking trip to Peru with a number of Ecademy members, where they not only took in some fantastic sights such as Mechu Pichu, they also jointly undertook charity work with a local school. We discussed how this type of activity really provided an opportunity to bond closely with network members. This supports Glenn’s theory that “networking leads to trust, which leads to trade”. Glenn called this trip “Netwalking” and suggested it might be a new way of developing relationships that lead to work and business opportunities, the reason why networking has developed rapidly within an increasingly self-employed community.
On a similar vein, I recently went on trips to Brussels, and seperately to Amsterdam, with combined groups including potential clients. Over an extended visit we met at the airport and travelled together, had breakfast, lunch and dinner together, and worked and socialised together. The result has been a high number of mutual business opportunities. Maybe we can call this “Netourism”?
What do you think? Is this a new opportunity we can mutually exploit?
