Wherever you live in the world it’s important to know people. We all need friends, things to do, places to go. Whether you’re new to your city or not, attending networking events to expand your connections, grow your business, or just get out of the house is a great idea.
The only problem is, a lot of people hate networking events! But I’m here to tell you that they are not always as scary as you might think they are. More and more I’m meeting people who are putting their real and authentic selves forward at networking events, and they are looking for other people who are doing the same. Will you join us?
In Victoria, there are so many places to network! If you want to step up your networking game here are some ideas to start you off. (For those of you who live elsewhere in the world, perhaps you can look for these types of groups where you live too.)
- Volunteer Victoria’s Emerging Leaders Network: This is a professional development and networking-focused group for people working or volunteering in the nonprofit sector in leadership-track positions. Several learning and/or social events are put on each month. (Full disclosure: I run this group for Volunteer Victoria!)
- Young Entrepreneurs Society (YES): This is a group of business people dedicated to community improvement. They feature inspirational speakers and have two networking mixers a month on the first and third Thursdays.
- Prodigy Group of the Victoria Chamber of Commerce: This is the Chamber’s group of emerging professionals. They have monthly mingles, a mentorship program, as well as other special events.
- Roaring Women: A women in business-focused networking group with a Victoria chapter
- eWomenNetwork: A business women’s network with a Victoria chapter
- BC HRMA: For those involved in the human resources field, the BC Human Resources Management Association has a local chapter.
- Girls Night Mixer: A quarterly gathering of passionate women in the Victoria area, by invitation only.
- Green Drinks Victoria: Part of Green Drinks International, this is a local networking event focused on conversations around environment and sustainability.
- Meetup.com: This is a general link to the Meetup site, which has the tagline of helping people “use the internet to get off the internet”. Find tons of groups meeting up in person in your area on all different themed topics (eg. Resilient Region Breakfasts, Victoria Lunch Tweetups, Home Office Support Team, WordCamp Victoria, and lots more)
- Social Media Club Victoria: Meeting on the third Monday of each month about social media topics.
- Canadian Society of Training & Development: Local chapter of the CSTD has mingles and workshops centred around training & development topics.
I haven’t attended all of the above groups yet but am working on it! If you have another networking event or group that you’d like to add to this list, please leave a comment.
See you at the next mingle or meetup! I will always be a welcoming face in the crowd for you.
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On another note, I’m really pleased to announce that I’ll be facilitating a 3-hour workshop on time management the afternoon of November 28 in downtown Victoria. The workshop is called “Change the Way You Work” and is open to the public to register.
If you’ve ever felt like there isn’t enough time in the day to do all the things that you have to do, or a sense of overwhelm in managing multiple things at the same time, you need to be at this workshop. I facilitated this for the Inter-Cultural Association’s management team this week and we had a blast and learned tons of strategies along the way.
Head on over here to find out more info and register. Special price for signing up before November 14!
