Networking by Keanan Kintzel, Buzzazz for Largo Business Leaders

The coffee is already going when we walk into a Clearwater mixer on a weeknight. So the cups are out, and the first conversations have started near the door. You hear the same detail from the person who just walked in. Someone left a shop in Largo at closing. They sat in northbound traffic and still made it. Because that’s where their regular group has been meeting. After introductions, Largo comes up again from another person by the coffee table. We’ve watched this from inside those rooms. For example, a contractor will say the job site was in Largo and the mixer was the only reason to head north. Those same people get back in the car when the night ends. And the owners doing the driving rarely mention networking events in Largo.

They already know the faces in Clearwater. When a referral comes through, it often comes from that room, so they keep the drive. But the drive wears on them. After a full day, US 19 at dusk moves slowly between the two cities. Shops along that highway close, and the northbound lanes fill with people who still have one more stop. Then they give up the evening they could have spent with a customer closer to the shop. We hear about that drive the next time we see them. A printer and an accountant can both want local work and still meet north of their own shops. Each of them heard about the mixer from someone who already drove up.

A closer room for networking events near Largo, Florida

We set up networking events in Largo for the owners who leave town for every mixer. The point is to put them in one room. So the contractor and the bookkeeper can meet where their shops already are. They’ve been finding each other in Clearwater because that was the calendar they knew. When we plan a night, we look at who has been driving out. Then we also look at who has stopped coming. After a while the same names drop off those Clearwater lists. They still need referrals. The weeknight trip stopped being worth the traffic. A room in their own city gives that group a reason to show up again.

People call us about cards that sat in a cup holder for a week. So those cards never turned into a second conversation. We’ve sat with owners who knew a stack of Clearwater contacts and almost nobody nearby in their trade. When that happens, the useful part is the call they make on Thursday. We write the follow-up list before we leave the room. The names are still fresh then. We ask who they wanted to meet and who they actually met. Then we mark the gap before anyone drives home. Titan Training is where we work on those sales and leadership calls. Online Marketing is the other piece, because a new contact will look the business up the next morning. After they search, they need a site that still matches the person they met. A strategic online marketing and PR plan is part of that follow-through.

networking events in Largo, Florida and the follow-up list

We keep the room small enough that people actually talk. So networking events in Largo stay a working night with enough time for introductions. Our founder, Keanan Kintzel, has hosted a complimentary networking night with a guest speaker. Because the same need showed up there. People still needed time to meet one another. For example, two owners who both serve Largo homeowners can trade work without adding another cross-town night. We wrote up how we handle networking events we host on the main site. It covers how a night runs. After the handshakes, some groups keep trading names with a free tool, the BLUE HAWK APP. When a contact needs a next step the same week, the app gives the introduction a place to go.

We work from Clearwater, so we see the Largo cars in those lots. The meeting still belongs where the owners work. Networking events in Largo put a printer and a bookkeeper in the same area for an evening. Our founders built the practice in the Tampa Bay area, and the calendar grew from rooms like these. We’ve helped thousands of people reach a goal they set. After that, owners often say the goal out loud at a local mixer for the first time. We build the guest list from owners who can use a referral the next day.