My head is still buzzing from my entrepreneurial networking trek across the bay yesterday. I attended the Union City - Hayward Chamber of Commerce Expo, the cities' first ever joint venture. My second stop was a Berkeley Meet Up - Entrepreneur Camp; Small Business Academy. It was my first time attending these events. Although I was tired, sweaty and hungry my from mini road trip, I left these events pumped for more.
The Union City - Hayward Chamber of Commerce Business Expo, is a first ever partnership between the neighboring east bay cities. Mt. Rose Hospital provided the The Big White Tent which housed more than 200 exhibitors from the business, educational, non-profit, and green communities.
Two companies that stood out for me is Gerry's Grill, a Filipino barbecue chain restaurant and a multimedia production company, dualstar.digital. I was impressed by the variety and quality of merchandise and 10 year run managed by only three employees.
Union City's Gerry's Grill was the best of all the food vendors and I'm not just saying that because I'm Filipino. Where else can you get free non-greasy Lumpia (Filipino Egg Roll), moist Pancit (rice noodles) and tasty barbecue pork. I've seen their booth at local Filipino festivals but I've never tasted their food because the long lines of hungry people ordering always frustrated me. On that day, I filled my second plate with no shame.
Two hours later I’m at my next stop Hotel Shattuck near U.C. Berkeley. The Meet Up - Entrepreneur Camp: Small Business Academy is organized by Patrick Schwerdtfeger. The group has existed for three years with consistent positive feedback from attendees. The fact that 60 people signed up last night and that they had two guest speakers, Kane Minkus and Jeff Slater to share their sales success tips, peaked my curiosity. The topic is appropriately called "Blatant Unfair Sales Magic Sooo Powerful You Might Be Afraid To Use It." Did you get that?
From the start, the cordial and welcoming Patrick wastes no time in getting the party started beginning wth introductions - but he has a very novel approach. Attendees are invited to pick up a playing card which is displayed on a big screen behind him at the front of the room. Whoever has that card has 30 seconds to stand up and speak up. And when your time is up, that's it. No re-winding. Short and sweet? Short and nerve wracking?
I liked it but then I like the thrill of impromptu. A majority of attendees presented their services pretty well, some more versed than others as I believe they begin every MeetUp this way. It's a necessary skill. Learning how to be part salesman, cheerleader and spokesperson all in one.
The business owners represented a diverse bag of service and product offerings: media, publishing, blogging, retail products, web and merchandise design, business/personal development and finance consulting to leisure and entertainment ventures. This of course is not an exhaustive list. They are great resources to network and learn from. Actually, this was the most entertaining networking event that I've attended due largely in part to the lively and very cordial atmosphere amongst the attendees and with Patrick. It helped that I felt very welcomed.
I don’t want to reveal all the free advice that was shared by Kane but will say that his sales techniques were spot on such as knowing how to gain trust and connectivity with your client. How to effectively present your sales pitch in just four to five simple sentences. But he just didn’t lecture and hammer these tips into our heads. We went through some concise written exercises and he did a walk through with a couple of brave volunteers who came away with the session more confident and focused in their delivery. Keywords of the workshop: Accelerated Results, Be in Action, Happy, Results You Produce, and Keyword Backtracking.
The last hour was jam packed with great and useful advice that everyone can use. My notebook is filled with uh, notes. Well, to others, it looks like chicken scratch. But I wasn’t scratching my head as Jeff rattled off his tricks and tips. Now that’s interactive learning.
To top of it off, Edith Yeung, the mastermind of BizTechDay dropped by and pitched her event. The event is a two day business strategy and techno conference for entrepreneurs. Big wigs from Virgin America, Yelp, 4 Hour Work Week, Comcast, and Digg is just a tasty sample of the guest speakers. She told me last night, that Craig Newmark of Craigslist was recently added to the impressive panelist lineup! More than 1200 are expected to attend , doubling last year’s numbers. Plus I’ll be manning the Inquirer.net booth and interviewing people for my Inquirer news story and blog.
And I can't forget BizTech's CIO, Andrzej Buszko. I've seen his cc'd name in my email correspondence with Edith but never met him. Glad we bumped into each other. Well, actually he asked me if I would interview people at BizTech. I Would have loved to if I wasn't already committed but kept my door open for future projects.
Overall, my trek to the east bay was a very productiv, interactive, informative and enlightening experience regardless of the traffic and parking challenges.
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