Happy to network
Submitted by dtomko on Tue, 2007-04-17 20:45.Young, hip professionals from around the ’burbs are tuning into a new network during Happy Hour
By Sarah Baicker
Philly EDGE Correspondent
In Montgomery County, happy hour isn’t just for sweet deals on beer and drinking away memories of the workday.
At least not anymore.
Since January 2006, the Suburban Young Professionals Network, a group housed within the Suburban Horsham Willow Grove Chamber of Commerce, has held monthly happy hour events geared toward young and newly professional suburbanites. Residents in their 20s and 30s meet up at bars around the area to mingle, enjoy drink specials and grow their social and professional networks.
The YPN, as it’s been nicknamed, is the brainchild of Mike Dare, 28, a financial planner and Horsham native. Dare was always well aware of the benefits of business networking but, to his dismay, discovered that making connections with established professionals—even those in his own field—was no simple task.
“I remember going out to traditional business networking events, and not being able to — and not knowing how to — break into the existing conversations,” Dare said. “The easiest way to network is to talk to people who want to talk to you. And, at these events it was the same people who had been going for the past 40 years talking to the same people. Who would want to talk to me?”
Dare, of Whipple & Associates in Horsham, joined the Chamber of Commerce shortly after beginning his career in the summer of 2005. He raised the idea of forming an alliance of young professionals that fall. Within just a few months, like a growing number of communities across the country, the Chamber held its first networking event for working men and women under the age of 40.
With little assistance, Dare planned a happy hour “speed networking” event at the Iron Hill Brewery in North Wales. In addition to drink specials, the 30 attendees learned about each others’ careers and business goals in an atmosphere similar to speed dating.
However, with no simple way to decide who spoke to whom and how, things got very complicated, very fast.
“It was like a math problem: figuring out how to organize the networking so everyone could talk to everyone else,” said Dana Smitka, 25, of iSendit/iCue Corp. in Southampton. She became YPN publicity chair shortly after the evening at Iron Hill.
Dare and Smitka eventually created a board of directors and added four other board members. Since the first event, the YPN has hosted monthly happy hours at bars and restaurants across the ‘burbs, which are always open to all interested parties.
Over the past year the YPN has hosted a number of events in addition to happy hours, like a lecture on buying art on a budget and a health and wellness breakfast.
“YPN events are packed with energy,” said Erin Dooley, the Suburban Chamber’s membership coordinator via a release. “They provide the perfect combination for business people who want to network in style,” Dooley said
However, the happy hours, the pair said, tend to attract the largest crowds.
“We don’t necessarily want to center our events around drinking,” Smitka said. “But then when we don’t, not as many people come.”
By far the network’s most popular event was a martini dinner tasting at the Bonefish Grill in Willow Grove—for just $10, attendees received a three-course tasting meal, and each course was paired with a specialty martini. That event drew so much interest that Smitka had to turn some people away.
Many of those who come to the events are Bucks or Montgomery County natives who have returned to the area after attending college out of state. Dare said a lot of young professionals who have come back to the area wind up feeling totally lost when they realize old friends are nowhere to be found.
“Lots of them come back after college and they’re like, ‘Wait, where is everybody? What am I doing here?’” Dare said.
The happy hours have been great for returnees to the area because they aren’t only about making network contacts, Smitka said. While Dare said he has garnered a great deal of business from the events, both he and Smitka said they’ve made a number of great friendships and know some others who’ve gone on to find romantic relationships.
Though it is one of the more popular options, the YPN isn’t the only network of young professionals in the Philadelphia region: The Greater Philadelphia Chamber of Commerce, Main Line Chamber of Commerce and the North Penn Chamber of Commerce and Trenton Downtown Association each have their own organization. And some of the YPN’s most successful events have been those held jointly with other networking groups.
“We had an event in Manayunk with the Main Line YPN one night,” Smitka said. “And then when that ended, everyone was like: ‘Let’s go to Pitcher’s Pub!’ After Pitcher’s Pub, they were like: ‘Let’s go to Bourbon Blue!’… It had definitely gone beyond just a networking event at that point.”
There have been a number of instances of these “after-happy hours,” Smitka said. But in true networking form, it doesn’t take long for others on the YPN’s e-mail list—the primary way the group spreads the word about their events—to hear about the revelry.
In the future, Smitka and Dare said, they’d like to host another lecture, possibly on financial planning—so many members are currently dealing with debt from college—but they’ve learned that such an event would have to be held in addition to the monthly happy hours, because they have so successfully nurtured network building.
“It makes sense,” said Dare. “Young professionals are going to go to happy hour somewhere. So they can either go where everybody else is going and maybe pick up some contacts, or they can go where their buddy from work is going, and not really accomplish much at all.”
Suburban Young Professionals Network
Happy Hour
Thursday, April 19
P.J. Whelihan’s
779 Dekalb Pike (Rt. 202)
Blue Bell
No membership fee.; cost per event: $10 - $15
For more information, contact Dana Smitka
215.953.9441
e-mail dsmitka@isendit.com
Other organizations:
Greater Philadelphia Chamber of Commerce
Main Line Chamber Young Professionals
610.687.6232 ext. 145
North Penn Chamber of Commerce
215.362.9200
Trenton Downtown Association Social Club
609.393.8998
Upper Bucks Chamber of Commerce
215.536.3211 or e-mail info@ubcc.org
