Well it's official. Space on Tap has innovated a new form of networking for homeworkers in the North East.
We've had the traditional networking events (love 'em or hate 'em), the FlipChart Roadshows (level playing field, low pressure sell & buy) and online social networking (Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn - easy, convenient, powerful). Now for something different?
Space on Tap's Colleagues on Tap days combine the best features of all of the above, to create a powerful vehicle for homeworkers (and anyone else who cares to come along!) to exchange ideas, build relationships, meet new customers and suppliers, and (pretty important for homeworkers) get a change of scene. And the best bit? It's all achieved in a day's work!
Colleagues on Tap Wednesday (mid-week to avoid the usual slump!) have a pretty simple format. A Cohort of Co-workers (12 is the optimum) arrive at a planned location for their working day. Laptops out, coffee made, they set to their 'to do list'. Over lunch, or coffee, they meet their colleagues for the day, and during a post-lunch 'Spot Chat' they share thoughts and ideas about a business topic of mutual interest, supported by someone with a professional interest in the topic (we don't like the term 'expert'!). So far topics have ranged from Twitter and Social Media generally to how to network effectively from home. Future SpoT Chat plans include home office ergonomics, how to clarify the value of your business, and no doubt more Facebook and Twitter.
Beyond that the day takes its natural course: chats on the sofas, private meetings to talk business, and more work.
The outcome? Solid relationships, new customers and suppliers and a renewed energy to get back to the home office the following day. And we're all about added value too. We love working with people who care as much as we do about doing business in a fun way. In our most recent co-working day our friendly IT suppliers, ITA, who specialise in providing support to small and home based business, provided a free laptop clinic for our co-workers. Needless to say it went down a storm and annoying bugs, unwanted pop-ups and out of date anti-virus software are now a thing of the past! Yay! Oh, and on added value, there's also the cupcakes ...Interested in netWORKing while you work? Book a place at our next event (book early - our last event sold out 2 weeks before it took place!)
