How Do You Find Events?
Meetup.com
Meetup is sort-of a social networking site, but instead of trying to get people to spend more time chatting online, its goal is to get you offline and meeting people in the real world. And it does a fantastic job.
Organizers pay a small fee to host meetup groups, centered around specific topics (anything you can imagine), and then other users are able to join as many groups as they like. Meetup provides organizers with handy meeting planning tools, and disseminates info to members. Groups meet in the real world whenever they want, and everyone is happy.
There are Meetup groups about almost everything (really), so it shouldn’t be too difficult to find one full of your target market. And if none exist, you can use Meetup to start one.
EventBrite.com
Mostly used for ticketed events of all kinds, EventBrite carries information on thousands of business and social networking events, educational workshops, conferences, and seminars. They have a decent search function allowing you to find events specific to your area.
Associations and Trade Organizations
Your industry, and the industries of your target market, almost certainly have associations or organizations. If you can afford to join them, you should. Even if you can’t, you should make a habit of checking their websites regularly for events. Some will be members only, and some will cost more than you want to spend, but there will certainly be some that you can attend.
In a similar vein, the Small Business Administration in most regions hosts classes, workshops, and events. Find the website for your local SBA and check their calendar often.
Local Venues
There are tons of non-profits, businesses, colleges, and other organizations that have taken it upon themselves to be a hub of networking, business development, and continuing education. They have names like “enterprise center,” “incubator,” “[insert industry here] development group,” “economic growth council,” “entrepreneur’s resource,” or “small business roundtable.”
Find these places. Bookmark their calendar page. Develop relationships with the people in charge of programming. Network. Host events. Teach classes. Have fun. Make money.
Business Networking Groups
If you can afford the up-front fee, there’s probably no reason not to join something like BNI, or another “exclusive” networking and referral group. These operate on the “one seat per industry” principle, and if you make it a point to contribute, be involved, and develop relationships with the other members, it’s very likely you’ll get business from it within a year of joining (sooner, if you’re good or sell something a lot of people need).
Besides referral business, groups like BNI give you an excellent, if limited, Thought Leadership platform. If the group is exclusive (one seat per industry), you have a captive audience of twenty to forty people who see you as the single expert on your field. If you’re doing other things, like blogging or publishing books, it’s easy to leverage a referral group into an additional Thought Leadership channel.
