HOW TO HOST REGULAR MEETINGS HARNESSING THE REAL SPIRIT OF GIVING

by Masami Sato

BUSINESS FOR GOOD REGIONAL MEMBER CONNECTION

Laughter, intriguing sharing, and a shared sense of belonging… The B1G1 member get-together we recently hosted in Singapore was a great starting point to think about how to create high-impact boutique networking events to bring together B1G1 Members and Partners in different cities, to do even greater good.

Well, I don’t think we need to create more networking events in any cities… You have probably been invited to so many events already anyway. You would have given away countless business cards that were thrown into bins and felt enough discomfort being approached by people who tried to sell you their products and services…

That’s definitely not what we want to create now. Instead, we want to build a community of giving businesses to do even more together. We wanted to explore a way to host different kinds of gatherings, to harness everyone’s desire to really make a difference together.

Through these gatherings, we want to empower B1G1 Members and Partners to:

  • connect and collaborate with each other with a spirit of giving
  • be updated on all the great things happening in the B1G1 community
  • share their own expertise to benefit others
  • learn from each other’s giving experience
  • create greater impact together (and walk away feeling uplifted)

Considering these, our trial event went great. Over 30 of us enjoyed the community spirit. It was also a free event made possible by some people contributing things like venue and food (and energy!) Some brought their family members too (it was a Saturday). And that gave us new ideas to make these meetings even greater.

HERE ARE SOME IDEAS TO STRENGTHEN THE GIVING THEME:

1. Charge small amounts for the tickets and call them ‘Tickets for Good’

2. Ask people to sponsor elements of the event (drinks, snacks and venue etc.) and try to minimize the cost through everyone’s support

3. Allocate all the proceeds from the ticket sales to the giving budget

4. Some people can also offer their niche products/services to other members for free (such as ‘10 minute health consultation just before the event’) and the happy recipients can add anything to the giving budget too

5. At the end of the event, decide on a project to give to and then celebrate the additional impacts created through collaborations

Imagine a gathering of uniquely talented business people where everyone gains special knowledge, connections and inspiration to do greater things and creating many giving impacts directly just by turning up.

Would you be interested in helping create the first event in your city? If your answer is yes, then please talk to us! :)