How to Engage Your Customers Using Social Media was our first presentation for our Connecting Business with Community Networking Events for the month of February. Presented by online marketer Priya Chandra, we saw the majority of the audience were visitors over Rotarians last night which goes to show the importance of this hot topic.
You may have seen the article in the 'Rotarian' this month called, "Open for Business" and it mentions the Rotary Club of Rochester who does similar events to attract new members with an old tradition. They have a motto at the club, "It's great to do business with a Rotarian" and have various events such as business networking events, B2B expos, "Ask an Expert" column in their newsletter about 5 things about a Rotarian's area of expertise; and a 'Business Before Hours' where they have a get-together at a Rotarian's place of business before work for a tour and preentation of their facility; as well as a business directory. They say, "we encourage our members to bring guests to all our evenings to promote the Rotary Club of Rochester and to let people know that along with our community service work, we are also helping people expand their business." I'm going to get into contact with RC Rochester to find out more about how to further tweak our events to make them that more attractive to business.
I had a call from our Member's office Elizabeth Miller to advise us that she will be attending one of our events so standby! It was lovely to see our GSE participant Andrew Boast who is getting ready for his trip to Dallas and to introduce him to Jayde Lovell, our guest speaker from last Monday night who has expressed an interest to apply for the Malaysia GSE this year. Jayde and I are in progress with organising the vocational tour for the Business Events in July which will be to the Monash ICU - a fascinating behind the scenes tour and presentation of this area; and having a speaker on another night talk about how businesses have contributed to community through charities - and some techniques on how they can work with not-for-profits to promote, sponsor and support charitable events and activities. July Business Networking Events are promising to be just as interesting as the ones we've had already and our database of local business contacts are now steadily growing.
Last night, we had some repeat visitors from last November's events but also some new faces and having a chance to speak to our visitors, they relayed that they got som tips, techniques and hints about what they could do for their own business. One person mentioned that what they thought they could use for their business, they changed their mind simply because it wouldn't have been the right tool.
Our second speaker Snigdha Gurrala, our sponsored NYSF participants charmed them. It was a perfect close to an evening where she explained the benefits and the value that the NYSF held for her. She openly explained her passion for biomedical sciences and you could see how excited she was to participate in this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. I hope to see Snigdha again, even as a future Rotaractor or Rotarian simply because she has seen the opportunities and learned more about Rotary. At our table, she was also giving us information on how the NYSF was using social media to keep in contact with other participants of NYSF long after the event as a way of still re-inspiring their passion in science and friendship.
So thank you to everyone who has helped in this evening to Philip and Jason for walking around to businesses to promote the events and give out flyers; to Ian who set up the room last night; and to Graeme for dealing with the crowds at the doors. Thanks to Philip again for chairing and creating the Member Packs and to Susan for the certificates.
Next week we have Laurence Guttledge (it was going to be Paul Whelan however he has another job now) a representative from VECCI to talk about the impact of the carbon tax to businesses. Although the turnout will be smaller than last night, I do ask that you actively promote this event to your friends and colleagues.
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