Ready … set … go! You’ve got 60 seconds to say everything you need to say about your business, who you are and what you want.
It’s called ‘‘accelerated’’ or ‘‘speed’’ networking, and is a twist on the popular dating concept. The idea is that after 60-second introductions, people will be better equipped to find those with whom they should form networking relationships.
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On a recent Wednesday evening, about 20 women tried the technique at an event sponsored by the local chapter of the eWomen Network, an international organization started in 2000 that has about 95 chapters in the United States and Canada.
Emily Linback, a loan officer for American Home Mortgage in Boston who lives in Central Falls, said she started the Rhode Island chapter because she was dissatisfied with networking events in the state.
She had trouble meeting people, she said. She wasted time on introductions that led nowhere because the people attending many events were there to socialize, not to build relationships with new people.
While attending an eWomen Network event in Boston, Linback said, ‘‘I really felt like it was maximizing my time. It forced me to streamline what I was saying.’’
Since May, Linback said, she has signed on about 15 regular members who attend the monthly networking events. In addition, she has about 2,500 prospective members.
The events attract mostly women who are in some type of independent business: entrepreneurs, sales representatives, real-estate agents, loan officers.
Sema Kaya-Gurerk, who in January started Floweredsky Jewelry, a Web-based store where she sells her original jewelry creations, said she went to the group’s June 28 event in hopes of finding someone to host a jewelry party or introduce her to owners of shops that might carry her jewelry.
At each eWomen event, participants must name something on which they plan to spend money in the next 30 days – whether it’s day care for their children or an accountant for their business.
Lori Ranieri, a marketing and sales manager for Clinical IV Network in Pawtucket, told the group she needed a speaker on wellness and stress management for a continuing-education class for nurses. Cathy Brennan, who operates a business called Pathways Coaching from her home in Connecticut, said she specializes in working with pre- through post-menopausal woman and has adept knowledge of holistic health. Ranieri said she’d be a perfect speaker for the class.
The events also feature speakers. The latest one was Ellie Anbinder, founder and chair of Art beCAUSE, a Framingham, Mass., that sells donated art to fund research on environmental causes of breast cancer.
‘‘You can’t go into it thinking, ‘What’s in it for me?’ ’’ Anbinder said. “It’s about thinking about relationships long-term. We used to call it building the Rolodex. Now we call it building the BlackBerry.”
Anbinder, who owned and operated a networking business in the 1980s, said networking has changed in the last two decades. ‘‘We’re in a bit of a more throwaway society,’’ she said, adding that people rarely send handwritten thank you notes anymore.
Technology makes people more isolated, she said. ‘‘People spend way too much time in front of the computer, and not enough time developing face-to-face interaction.’’
Stephanie Dresner, a sales representative for Wyeth Pharmaceuticals, called the events’ format ‘‘conducive to women’’ because, so often, a 60-second introduction turned into a table-wide discussion about work and personal needs, much like a dinner among any group of women anywhere.
‘‘Men tend to network differently than women,’’ Linback said. “We are more on the relationship-building side.”
The next networking event is set for July 19.
