The Big Network
June 14th, 2011
Walk into a Thursday morning meeting of Sutton BNI and you’ll find people are wearing name badges with their trade or profession identified. Nothing new there – at BNI, as at other networking groups, we need to know what work people do, if we’re going to be able to pass referrals to them. At Sutton, though, we’ve just had our badges redesigned, and very smart they are, too: name, business name, job title, logo. Very helpful, especially for visitors who don’t know the regulars: if I’m working up an idea for an article about recycling, for example, I look out for references to waste, environment, and so on. And if someone needs help with publicity, the word ‘journalist’ on my badge is a helpful clue.
But what’s this? My badge has a green stripe across the bottom. Alan Gristwood, on the other hand, has a red stripe on his badge. Why the different colours? It’s all about power teams. Gristwood is our painter and decorator, and the red stripe on his badge tells you he’s in the ‘trades’ power team, which also includes plumber Mark Thaw, electrician John Sell and others. My green livery marks me as one of the ‘business services’ power team, also including web and graphic designer Keiran Wynyard, IT support specialist Alan Johnson, printer Carolyn Reilly and others. (All our members are here.)
In BNI terms, a power team is a group of members who tend to share the same clients, and so are likely to produce referrals for each other. The business services power team is bringing 100 of those clients together at the Holiday Inn Sutton on 23 June 2011 from 7pm to 9pm, for The Big Network. We’re doing this to spark off communication with businesses which employ five or more people. We’re also aware that some of these people are not willing to meet us at 7am. At £10 a ticket, including welcoming glass of wine and light buffet, we reckon The Big Network is the best show in town.
Categories: BNI
There’s still time for Sutton and Croydon employers to book a place at this evening’s Big Network event. Email me and I’ll add you to the guest list!