How to Prepare for A Networking Event Pt 2

so this is the second video to throwing your own networking events and today we're going over my announcement template now this is very important because especially at our own networking events and business mixers we have sponsors we normally have two we have one for food and then we have one for giveaways and we do want to give them Shameless plugs we do want to acknowledge them and we also want to acknowledge all the organizers of the event so at the same time the people that show up they don't want to stand there and listen to anyone talk for 30 or 45 minutes or even longer I've been to events where that's happened and we were all sitting there like I thought that we were here to network and instead we had to sit down and listen we wanted to get back to why we were there in the first place if people are coming to your networking event they're there for their own reasons they want to meet contacts they want to mingle and Shmo with other professionals uh possibly meet a potenti potential client so we want to keep the announcements short I'm Yana henan thank you so much for tuning in here is my announcement template first thing I do whenever I'm trying to get the whole room's attention is I like to ask two questions the reason why is when you ask a question you get everyone to turn and they're already thinking of answers normally my questions are something simple like hey is everyone having a good time is anyone not there that's usually what I do when you ask questions you're getting everyone's attention next I go into the introduction thank you all so much for coming to the We&Co business mixer give yourself a round of applause you want to get them engaged and when you ask them to give themselves a round of applause you're acknowledging them for showing up so after you thank them for coming I then go into shoutouts I like to shout out to the bartender I like to give shout outs to the organizers a lot of times our mixers and events and Weeno they're organized by our huddles it's part of their strategy portion uh this is especially the business mixer it's typically put on by a B2B Group businesso business group and they're there to meet other Professionals in the area I like to go through and really quickly hi who are you what do you do I do not want them talking more than 15 seconds each especially if it's a larger group with like you know seven or eight organizers or 12 or 13 just who you are and what you do next I tell everyone hey guys get out your phones we have some upcoming events and then I go over all the rest of the events that are in that area for the rest of the month typically we have a backdrop and I have a slideshow that automatically plays through and that includes our events with QR codes but again sometimes when you're at a networking event you might not be looking up at the backdrop so this is a perfect time to get everyone to get out their phones and put in the events for the rest of the month and again I always go back to asking questions with this next portion I'm like who's enjoying the food here you know and then I mention the sponsor well so and so sponsored it he's with Acme Building Company let's give him a round of applause have everyone clap again and then I say so tell me who are you what do you do who's an ideal referral and your ideal referral partner who are you looking to meet now this is very important I always meet with the sponsors before the event and I let them know you have 30 seconds to introduce who you are so make sure you're prepared and ready to go we don't want them up there for 5 6 minutes I have had business mixers in the past where we would have a sponsor and they got up there and they turned into a microphone hog we don't want that either I'm very clear with them 30 to 45 seconds who you are what you do who you're looking to meet then I always tell everyone so hey if you get a chance come up and introduce yourself to these guys they're feeding us tonight so then I ask another question who wants to win some stuff and then always you want to acknowledge the giveaway sponsor too so who you are who are you what do you do who are you looking to meet and then I have them stand up there with me and then I have them draw out the winners of whatever it is that they're giving away and again just a little reminder we like our giveaways to be $50 or more and we usually do anywhere from 3 3 to five so whether it's a gift basket if it's Electronics we like to give away 3 to five gifts to the attendees okay and so they will pull out the business card I always make sure that they don't look I always say don't look no cheating right and oh here's another thing if uh you're an organizer or if it's like me I never put my own business card in the giveaway I guess you could I don't because I want the attendees to have a better chance of winning and I also encourage the organizers or the Huddle members also not to put their business cards in because they're already standing up at the front we want to make it memorable for the people attending and nothing gets people coming back the following month when after they've won something so after that then I go right into closing all right give a round of applause to our winners thank you guys so much for coming by the way we have the room until 7:30 so feel free to meet mingle and shmoo with everyone else here if there's someone you haven't met yet go up and introduce yourself and yeah again we will see you this time and place next month so that's my basic template for running announcements at We&Co business mixers it's really easy to stay actually under 10 minutes if you just kind of hit those points thank you so much for tuning in I'm Jana Hennemann and I will see you this time next week also at the end of this video there's a little QR code for our newsletter be sure to sign up we send it out weekly we are never pitching anything and we call it no fluff just the good stuff [Music]