I used to keep a box at my desk with all of the nametags I had accumulated from countless conferences and networking events I had attended through the years. A few weeks ago, as I was purging my desk of all things extraneous, I sifted through those badges and noticed a trend – it occurred to me that for about a 10 year stretch, I had attended events that were roughly the same format and had roughly the same crowd year after year after year. If I had the time to go back and look at the various agenda for each of these events, I’m pretty sure I would have seen the same names over and over again. It got me thinking – what’s the goal of all these networking events in Atlanta? Is it to network with new people or is it something else?
The city of Atlanta has everything going for it – you’ve heard me talk about, I’ve blogged about it many times. I’m not going to reiterate all the good things we have in place. But if we’re going to take that next step in our maturation as a city with an ambition to be on the start-up map, I think we have some introspection to do. And make no mistake, I am looking straight in the mirror as I write all this. And so on with the introspection. I would contend that many (not all, mind you) of our networking events are essentially club events. The same core group of people show up, catch up with one another, fail to make any real effort to get to know new people, revel in their respective importance, and rarely invite (or ask organizers to invite) new people. If we’re going to grow our base of smart, talented high growth minded people, this is a recipe for mediocrity, for stagnancy, not for growth. These events are awesome opportunities for our community to be truly inclusive and too often, we treat them like organized social hour for a small elite group. Too often, we seek out ways to exclude. Are there times when requirements for attendance are important? Events where service providers should be excluded? Of course – especially ones in which start-ups are vying for limited attention from potential investors. I won’t list them out because I will leave something out, but you know what they are. For everything else, I wish the bar to qualify for attendance was a bit lower.
So some of you are thinking right now – come on, I don’t exclude people. Heck, when we have an event, we tweet about it, make sure folks know it’s an open invitation, etc. What I would say is the same thing any good church minister would say – the marquee sign in front of the sanctuary has limited real marketing value. Event organizers need to do more direct evangelizing. They need to encourage folks to bring new friends to events. They need to break down any historical exclusive requirements. That’s how growth happens – we should be opting for democratization at the very least, active inclusion and sought out diversity as the ideal.
Atlanta gets a bad rap for a lot of stuff, so much of it undeserved. We have all the necessary elements for success that are not easily replicated – amazing companies, amazing universities, a young, vibrant labor force, great weather, the biggest airport in the world, the list goes on. But if we’re honest with ourselves, we could probably do a better job of embracing our larger community. Every strong community develops its own set of characteristics that define it, set it apart. There’s nothing wrong with that. It’s when those characteristics ultimately contribute nothing to either the group itself or the community at large that we all lose.
Alright, stepping off the preachy soap box atop the high horse. I think you get my point…
Stay tuned…
{ 4 comments… read them below or add one }
Mike 07.19.10 at 11:33 pm
One area that does concern me is ethnic and gender diversity. Most events in Atlanta that I have attended have a paucity of African Americans, women and Hispanics. I don’t at all think those groups are excluded by any intent. Nor am I AT ALL an affirmative action/quota guy. Instead, I think that by not gaining visibility into large sectors of the population, statistically we are almost certainly missing out on great innovations and potential capital sources.
I know the entrepreneurs are there because I have mentored and continue to mentor many minority entrepreneurs with some intriguing opportunities. Special outreach must be carried out to make sure those groups are aware of these networking opportunities and that all are welcome.
We’ve worked hard at StartupLounge to accomplish this, and we’re not close to achieving our goals in this regard. It’s surprisingly challenging.
Greg Foster 07.20.10 at 7:40 am
I know for a fact that you guys have done a ton to be more inclusive, and you guys are in that category that I think has to be, by definition, more exclusive, so your efforts are even more impressive.
Kenji 07.20.10 at 9:40 am
Great post and comments that all of us who care about ATL’s start-up community should consider. I often find myself telling people that our organization demonstrates how much we care about strengthening our start-up community based upon the networking events that we sponsor and attend here in town. There’s certainly truth in that statement, but just because I show up at TAG or sponsor StartupLounge does that mean I’m really helping create a stronger community? No, not if I walk into the event and make a beeline straight to my friends and colleagues (which I’m frequently guilty of doing) and don’t take the opportunity to meet and welcome people I don’t know. While my natural inclination is to go to an event with a very personally-focused agenda (socializing with friendly faces, biz dev opportunities for my firm), I think this is a great call to action to have a more community-focused perspective. Many networking events themselves should adopt a more open invitation policy, but I think the predominant responsibility lies on the individuals who are already part of the community to do the “direct evangelizing”.
Troy Coons 08.20.10 at 1:11 pm
I like the post here Greg, particularly as it relates to ethnic diversity. Mike, your sentiments and concerns are expressed by many of us in the majority culture in the States. A couple things that I have learned from years in cross cultural ministry is that diversity does not necessarily result in effectiveness nor in meeting needs. The challenge for most of us in the majority culture (whites) in the States is that we love the idea of diversity, however when we think about diversity, it comes on our terms, and our home turf. An example: we would love to see our church more ethnically diverse, but we often fail to change the programming, style, location etc. to attract those who are culturally different from us. And, even if we have some of those things, people from minority cultures are often not invited into leadership roles where they may ‘call the shots’ and directly impact and shape the culture. So, doing our best to invite others to our event is often met with limited results, because what we are inviting others into is often not ‘them.’ This could be true not only of churches but also for business, social clubs, even conferences. A major difference with business is that all of us have to work and make money, whereas we can choose whether or not to join a church or fraternity.
If I were seeking opportunities to meet more ethnic minorities, I would start by going to their turf - try and find where African Americans or Latino’s meet to discuss business.
Just some thoughts. Feedback welcomed!