By Pepper Parr
BURLINGTON, ON. April 1, 2013 You will see the T-shirt first.
517 People. 25 Vendors. 344 Comments. 158 Photos. What Next?
Indeed – what next. James Burchill has managed to take an idea and use Social Media to build an audience and a network into something that approaches 2000 people. He is a shameless self-promoter. His events are described by him as “epic”. He emails like the service was going to end tomorrow but this guy managed to get more than 500 people out to an event at the Performing Arts Centre to just network. The bar prices were on the high-end and the selection was limited but the people were there and the door prizes were good and the Mayor said nice things about what he was doing. That was enough for James Burchill this time out.
Business in Burlington is all about business cards which identify the more than 2000 people who are part of a unique collection of people who meet once a month.
Burchill runs the Business in Burlington (BiB) “Meet Up”. It is what is says it is – a place for people to meet and talk business. It’s not a place to find the man or woman of your life or even for the next weekend. Certainly not a singles set up.
The way we relate, the paths we walk along to get where we want to go, the people we meet and then choose to meet are all part of the way the society we live in works. We organize ourselves into groups; it used to be Scouts and Girl Guides but those organizations didn’t keep up with the needs of families and the pedophilia within the Boy Scouts certainly didn’t help that crowd.
We join golf and country clubs, or a book study group; maybe the Chamber of Commerce or the YMCA. New organizations come into existence to meet new needs.
They didn’t fill every square foot but there were certainly enough of them to create a buzz. The display tables on the mezzanine were very busy.
Burlington has one of those unique situations where there are four Rotary Clubs – each meeting the needs of different groups of people. Many people use Rotary as a touch point and refer frequently to their fellow Rotarians. It is almost as if you have to belong to the Rotary to be real.
Sports is a big part of family life in this city. We put athletics ahead of scholarship and are relentless when it comes to funding events in the community with galas and gatherings.
In Burlington the Chamber of Commerce , which is fairly described as the mainline business organization, has committees and represents the commercial sector. BiB doesn’t do any representing nor does it seem to involve itself with the larger community.
Is this the direction Social Media is taking us in?
The ‘mini-trade show at the Performing Arts Centre was such a success for Burchill that he has already booked the date for the next such event – March 20th, 2014.
The last one went so well that Burchill is holding an event at which he will tell you how he pulled it off – he says he is prepared to tell you about what worked; what didn’t work and the mistakes along the way.
Here’s how Burchill shills for this event:
Finally, when you pull off an event this big on your own, people begin to wonder how you did it. A couple of popular questions are: How do you keep growing the networks? How do you get such high engagement and turn-out?
Would you be interested in attending a private presentation about this event and how I put it together, how I marketed it, the tools I used, the strategies I deployed and so on?
I’ll take you behind the scenes and show you the successful parts … and the screw ups (there were a couple of good ones!) It’ll be a candid experience and one I think will open your eyes to the marketing power of local networking events.
You can let me know here:
Networking – right. It was an “epic” event for Burchill. So good that he is going to do it again next year.
He promotes: shamelessly, consistently, a little outside the Burlington character but his people love him and they tend to leave satisfied and plan on returning.
Burchill has moved his monthly event from the Waterfront Hotel to Ivy on the South Service Road. Next time up is this Wednesday 5 to 7 pm. It is certainly a nice location and the parking is free. It will be “fabulous” when they are out on the patio.
Business in Burlington – if you want to know how to exploit Social Media to its fullest – listen to Burchill.
