A tasty alternative to business networking meetings

If you hate going to business networking meetings or struggle to find the time then here is a tasty alternative. I picked it up from a great networker many years ago.

He was a board director of a large food company and he wanted to introduce me to one of his contacts. The only problem was that there was no compelling reason for the other person to want to speak to me. My contact just felt it would be useful for us to meet and if we hit it off then something good might come of it.

His solution was to organise a curry night with some of his contacts. I love a good curry but my wife is not that keen so it certainly was very appealing! There is something about having a curry together which seems to be great for relationship building. Anyway, it was a great success and the introduction did, indeed, prove very valuable for both of us.

I have taken the idea and copied it and now regularly hold my own curry nights with various twists. I never have more than 10 people and we all share the bill. I aim for an average cost of £20 per head. If the numbers are greater than 10 people then it seems to lose the intimacy. Less is often more.

My favourite approach is to organise a curry with someone I know in a particular area. For example, next week I am having a curry night in Richmond-Upon-Thames with someone who lives there. She is inviting 4 people she wants me to meet and I am inviting 4 people I want her to meet. That way we both get to catch up with people we know and meet new people too. The guests will normally get to know lots of new people and enjoy a curry at the same time.

Another variation is inviting 4 people and each getting them to invite one person. This is great in theory but often people leave it to the last minute and end up coming alone. Occasionally I will do a curry night where I just invite 9 people I already know but they do not know each other.

I aim to do a curry night once a month and the great thing is that people who attend start doing their own. Some even get creative and do Italian nights or Thai nights. It doesn’t have to be curry – it’s just what I like!