The evening looked promising… there was a good crowd…and you don’t know anybody – Perfect! You had not heard of the sponsoring organization before and you anticipate meeting a different circle of business professionals.
After about 20 minutes of mingling the host asks for your attention and invites you into the next room to take a seat.
Then the presentation begins. Except that you do not recall mention of a presentation when you read the event listing. Now for the next 30-40 minutes, instead of meeting new people and talking business, you are learning all about the host’s products & services. NOT what you signed up for.
Welcome to the networking “Bait & Switch”. Business people wanting to get a targeted audience together for lead-generation purposes have been known to call their free/low cost gatherings “networking events”, and certainly, whenever there are business professionals in the room, they will be networking…but a line has to be drawn around the distinctions. Please understand that giving low-cost/free workshops & presentations is a valid & legitimate avenue for business development; as long as there is clear communications about the evening’s agenda. This NOT to be confused with a hosted sit- down meal event with an outside speaker. Chambers & associations do that all the time.
NetworkingEventFinders.com does not charge for listing networking events. We do charge for commercial presentations, workshops, & business opportunity meetings. For our purposes, we have outlined a 5% rule. If the host puts on a presentation that lasts longer than 5% of the event time, it is to be considered a presentation and will be charged & listed as such.
Will some slip through? Sure…it’s bound to happen. LinkedIn Live is an awesome resource that may straddle that line. However, we feel that open discussions on how to benefit from LI is in everyone’s interest. That said, every host leads their event differently. Please let us know if you believe there is too much personal promotion on the part of the host at any event.
Happy Networking!
1 Comment in this post »
RSS feed for comments on this post.
I don’t believe it… two days after writing this I fell for one! A “Chamber of Commerce” that is really a clearing house for various MLM companies….
Granted…there is nothing illegal there. MLM is a valid business model that almost everyone has tried at one time or another. The issue is transparency.