OFFLINE has no agenda, no guest speaker, no name badges and no corporatism. Typically, I just invite 30 – 35 friends and associates, all smart and accomplished people, who enjoy mixing business with pleasure. All I ask is that you come with a generosity of spirit and an open mind. I shall say a few words, we shall have dinner, make connections old and new, play a few games and then I will send you home!
Great communication is the bedrock of great business. Alas, too many businesses take a one dimensional approach to cultivating and nourishing client relationships. OFFLINE recognises that these relationships truly flourish when multilayered. They flourish even further when shared over food!
In a more intimate setting, I invite three companies with an entirely different sectoral bias for dinner. I might combine a private bank with an architectural practice and a law firm or an advertising agency, a hospitality group and a technology incubator. The permutations are endless, as are the benefits.
Typically, ten guests come from each, usually split between four existing clients whom you wish to nurture, four prospective clients whom you wish to court and two management. I then add a further ten people myself, all engaging and diverting individuals, throw all forty odd names up in the air and see where this interesting smorgasbord lands.
This random approach can prove highly liberating. The element of surprise can take the conversation in uncommon directions! Moreover, I mix attendees whereby any given table might, for example, comprise of management of each company, existing clients from one, prospective clients from another and a few jokers in the pack from my end.
OFFLINE events fit roughly into three categories: Private, Small Business and Big Business.