International Networking Week 2009

February 2-6th sees the third annual International Networking Week. Sponsored by BNI, the last two years have seen the majority of events in the UK taking place in BNI Chapters.

With concerns of businesses focusing on a year of economic gloom and doom, events like this which promote networking as the way forward provide us with the shot in the arm many of us need.

In this video, Ivan Misner, founder of BNI, talks about how businesses approaching the recession positively can achieve so much more.



"If you want to do well in business, you must understand that it does absolutely no good to complain to people about tough times. While you cannot control the economy or your competition, you can control your response", says Dr. Misner, talking about the role of networking in fighting a recession.

It would be great to see International Networking Week expand to other organisations in the UK and become more widespread. If you have an event, feel free to post it as a comment on this blog.

Business, Networking.....and Sex!

Ivan Misner, the Founder of BNI, together with two associates, Hazel Walker and Frank De Raffele, are currently conducting some research for a book on the difference between men and women when networking.

Ivan says, "Sex is about how your body is put together. Gender is about the role you engage in daily. Male and female brains are hardwired differently. According to some experts, the male tends to be about taking action as related to goals (called instrumental functions by the scholars) and the female for the talking or for nurture that is related to relationships (called agency or interpersonal functions). Studies in 39 different countries highlight these differences.

"Well, we want to see if this is true and how it plays out relating to the way that men and women network."

Please take a few minutes to help Ivan and his colleagues out. So far, 5,000 people who have already answered their survey on this subject.

Take the networking gender survey here.