It's been a while since I've written a blog post!!
A mixture of being on holiday and also having a lot on my mind and major procrastination has kept me away from the Miss Simone blog post, but I'm back and ready to get on it!
I wanted to share my experience of attending one of my first entrepreneur networking events. It was an event called YEAh Live (Young Entrepreneur Association). It boasted that there will be great speakers, networking opportunities, workshops etc.
I arrived at a hall near the Oval in Vauxhall, London. I immediately wasn't impressed by the location. It was dirty, cold, paint chipping and the flow of the space wasn't zen at all. People were rushing about, carrying tables, chairs etc and I was greeted by a flustered dreaded lady, asking me who I am. I informed her I'm here for the event and she told me it hadn't started yet and I could take a seat in the foyer.
I had arrived at 3:30pm (the time the event was supposed to start) by 4:30pm the event still had NOT started!!!! By this time I was highly frustrated but I didn't want my journey to be in vein. So I went and bought my self a patty from the food table (£2.50...bloody expensive!!) and sat down again.
Finally I was told I could go into the hall and take a seat. I picked one of the 12-15 seats and waited for the first speaker. It was a young guy who apparently owns a few of his own businesses (he failed to mention what they were or how he built them) and he informed us that he was being rushed off the stage due to the organisers running late. I thought this was a great shame as it meant he couldn't give an effective talk, instead he was nervous and babbled and repeated himself throughout.
After the first speaker we was told we would have a short break. At this point I'm thinking "why on earth are we going to have a break, we just got started an HOUR late!?"
Anyway, I decided to look at the few exhibitors in the hall and ended up buying myself a beautiful Silver ring :)
I sat down again hoping the event will kick back in and found myself twiddling my thumbs for about 10 minutes. by this time is was already 5:30pm and I had enough!! So I left and went home!
I don't understand how an event that is supposed to be encouraging entrepreneurship in youths ran late, was disorganised and just looked sooooo tacky!
I don't know if I'm putting my foot in my mouth by saying this but it was a black run event (I'm black!) and I find that this is typical of the black community. We have great ideas and great ambitions but we don't seem to know how to execute them effectively.
Here are some future tips for YEAh Live:
- Start on time
- Have name/title badges for organisers
- Have complimentary drinks and sandwiches (It was a paid ticket event £7 - it's the least you could do!)
- Hire a hotel conference room instead of the community hall
- Hand out a proper floor plan/timetable of the evening
- Make sure all the organisers are dressed nicely (lord knows what half of them looked like!)
This experience has taught me to think more carefully about what events I attend in the future. It's important to network but you can't go to anything and everything as it could turn out to be a big waste of time!
Until next time,
xoxo
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