How not to throw a networking party

I used to go to a lot of networking parties in my early days here. Partly it was a novelty, something I felt I ought to try. Partly it was necessity: I didn't know anyone when I first got here, neither for business nor social purposes. And back then, this sort of event was a far more important means of making contact with the laowai community: expats here were far fewer 5 or 6 years ago, and the sort of slightly upscale bars and restaurants that targeted them were far fewer too; outside of a handful of established venues (the John Bull Pub, the Goose & Duck, Sanlitun South Street - all now demised, victims of 'progress'), you just didn't run into other foreigners by accident very much. How things have changed!

I used to go to quite a few of the national chambers of commerce events - but they tended to be rather stuffy and earnest: if you didn't have a fat venture capital fund to invest or a huge technology transfer to pitch, you felt like a bit of an imposter. I used to go to Oriented a fair bit too; that used to be rather fun, I thought (set up originally in the States by ABCs - though it now has branches all around Asia-Pacific); but perhaps I was biased because I was friends with the principal organiser, and used to go along largely to catch up with her once a month. Since she got herself a big TV job and dropped out of the organising committee, the Oriented parties have taken a major turn for the worse. The jolliest forum of the lot was the self-mockingly titled 'Young Professionals' Happy Hour' but, sadly, that folded a few years back - and there's been a bit of a void in the social scene since.

So, last night I went to check out the newcomer on the scene, The Network Club (well, new-ish; someone suggested to me they might have been around for a year or two now, but I've only become aware of them in the last couple of months.... and I usually keep my ear to the ground about such things!). It's a much grander and more 'professional' set-up than the old YPHH. I have to say, I admire the ambition of the undertaking, the range of activities it is seeking to promote, and the thoroughness of its website. However, this 'ambition' also makes me a more than a little bit queasy: the only good reason I can see for trying to do things like this on such a large scale is to get rich quick. Their principal events - the monthly networking evenings - are pitching for around 300 participants each time: this severely limits their choice of venues; and it's way too many for either for an effective networking experience or for a pleasant social outing - you simply can't mingle easily to find the people who might interest you in such a huge and packed throng. Moreover, the hefty door fee (100 kuai! Twice what Oriented or YPHH ever charged - in fact, in the good old days YPHH used to be funded entirely by new bars and restaurants seeking to promote themselves and was free to attendees) leaves one feeling somewhat ripped off.

My biggest gripe about last night, though, was the choice of venue. Well, the choice of venue, and the organization of the space. It was held at The Opposite House, a new 'boutique hotel' in the ghastly, seemingly neverending Sanlitun Village mall, which has a number of bars and restaurants on its ground floor. There begins the problem: which of these multiple sub-venues would actually be hosting the party - some or all? It wasn't at all clear. In fact, many of the earlier arrivals like myself were directed by the over-eager venue staff into the Mesh cocktail bar to convert our 'One Free Drink' voucher into a free drink - and nearly missed out on the main event, which was in fact slowly getting going in the atrium.

The Network Club people were so intent on getting everybody to register and pay that they didn't give out any instructions as to what people should do next. The rear of the atrium area - which, I belatedly discovered, was the intended venue for the event - could be accessed only by one very narrow aisle along the edge of a large 'water feature' (a cunning piece of techno wizardry - it looks like a square of black marble with a thin film of water rippling across it, but this seems to be an illusion created with the lighting somehow). The two other aisles had mysteriously been blocked off. Venue staff members were posted there to prevent people from going through; they could just as easily have checked that anyone seeking to go through had the requisite hand stamp from the event organisers. And on the one aisle available for use, oddly enough, there didn't seem to be anyone checking the hand stamps; so this was a case where a fatuous attempt to establish venue security merely resulted in a galling inconvenience. This inconvenience was compounded by the fact that even after a large enough crowd had gathered to make it clear that this was where the event was supposed to happen and that this was the only means of access, a large gaggle of people formed directly in front of the registration table (after registering), completely blocking off this ridiculous bottleneck approach to the intended networking area.

Quite apart from these organizational cock-ups, the venue seemed to me to be all wrong for this kind of function. The Opposite House is a barn: yes, it has a monumental quality to it, and its space-age architecture is kind of funky up to a point, but..... it has zero atmosphere, absolutely none. Bottom line: you can't 'network' with an 80 ft ceiling constantly reminding you of your insignificance.

In my view, a good networking party needs a human scale: a group size where you could conceivably nod a hello to everyone in the room and get to chat to most of them, if you so chose - or at least be able to scope them all out. That becomes quite impossible with numbers of 100 or more. You also need a venue suitable to that sort of group. The ground floor of The Opposite House - if the organizers had not been perversely trying to confine the party to the relatively cramped space at the back of the atrium - could swallow up 1,000 or more people. Good networking requires a sense of intimacy, not the ambience of a cattle market. A cosy, small-to-medium sized venue - with a number of semi-discrete areas for split-off groups to get cosy - is ideal. And some seating is nice too; some people don't want to spend three hours on their feet; and I like to choose to mingle, rather than being forced to by the absence of anywhere to stand, or even to lean.

Ah yes, and alcohol would be good too. There was only one free drink last night - a rather miserly ration, I thought, considering the high cost of entry. There did not appear to be any additional drinks specials (although there was a special set dinner menu at one of the adjacent restaurants) laid on for the event. In fact, it was not clear if drinks were available at all: there was only one small table - and a few circulating wait staff - dispensing drinks in the main networking area, and this did not appear to be operating as a cash bar. It wouldn't have made much difference anyway, since the area became so uncomfortably overcrowded that it was almost impossible to make one's way through to it. And I, for one, would have been hesitant about buying many drinks at Opposite House prices.

I am a great believer that a free availability of alcohol is an essential lubricant to almost any kind of party - wedding, funeral, joint venture launch, you name it. In fact, I suggest that the disinhibiting effects of alcohol availability at such gatherings make themselves felt almost immediately, even before anything has been drunk; indeed, this benefit has relatively little to do with how much has actually been drunk - it can make its effects felt just as much on the teetotallers in the company. It's all a matter of attitude: if it is clear that this is an event where getting well-and-truly drunk is a distinct possibility, that drinking, heavy drinking is, if not encouraged, at least sanctioned.... well, then everybody gets into a party frame of mind, unwinds a bit, gets prepared to have a little fun. Weddings that try to keep everybody sober until the end of the meal (presumably to avoid heckling of the speeches??) are a disaster. Networking events are precisely the same: you need good service and affordable drinks (discounts special to the event always create good feeling) to help keep the conversation flowing easily. That was the key element missing last night. Add that to an unwieldy crowd and a horrendous venue, and you've got a pretty dire evening.

I'd really like this Network Club venture to succeed, because I think there is a niche to be filled here; but I'm going to be very wary about dropping another 100 RMB on their next event.