Meeting FAQ
Growth Community meetings are usually at 10am but our online meeting is at 5.30pm. See our Locations page for more details.
Most of our meetings are in person, but we also have an online meeting for those that find it more convenient. You can find out more and book on via our Meetings page.
We offer mostly in person networking, but we do have one online meeting every fortnight. You can find out more and book on via our Meetings page.
Our friendly meetings are very relaxed and fun so everyone who comes along – whether in person or online – always enjoy it. You can see some of our five star reviews here.
You can read more about our four step meeting agenda here.
Visit the meetings area to get a more detail on the agenda of our meetings.
Our meetings are always relaxed and friendly and there is no pressure to make introductions or referrals, but we do encourage you to leave with at least one person to follow up with to get the most out of your networking time.
It’s always good to be as organised as you can for a networking meeting, but don’t worry our meetings are very relaxed and we’re all just interested to learn more about you.
Prior to the meeting, have a think about what you are going to say in your one minute introduction and bring some business cards or flyers with you if you have them. Other than that, just turn up as your authentic self and enjoy it!
Yes. Everybody is asked to introduce themselves and tell us in one minute how they help their customers. The clearer you are in this part of the meeting the more likely you are to get other attendees wanting to set up a 121 with you and get to know you better. Don’t be nervous about it. Our meetings are very friendly. Just tell us how you help people and that is enough. If you need to write it down and read it out then that is ok too.
We give each attendee 60 seconds to introduce themselves. We don’t have clocks or alarms to put you off, but we do ask that you help us to keep it fair by staying roughly within your one minute.
A one minute pitch is where you introduce yourself to the room. Tell us your name, business and how you help your customers. If you want you could also give us a testimonial of someone you’ve helped, share a useful statistic or anything else you want to cover.
The purpose of the pitch is to get people to want to find out more about you in a follow up – so think about that outcome when you are planning it. If you aren’t confident in doing your pitch it is ok to read it out from a script.
Tell us who you are, what your business is and how you help your customers. You might want to tell us what kind of businesses you are looking to meet too.
The contributions part of the meeting is how we keep our networking meetings productive and show gratitude to people who have helped us.
In this section of the meeting you get to share who you would like to follow up with. It’s also where our members say their thank yous and positive things about each other – especially if they’ve been helped by someone in the meeting.
Sometimes people talk about introductions and referrals at this stage of the meeting too. If it’s your first visit you probably won’t have a lot to say as you haven’t got to know anyone yet… but if you have a good 121 with someone you can thank them when you visit the next time.
The most important part of the Contributions is to set up a follow up 121 conversation with someone from the meeting.
You can learn more about our meeting agenda here
You might also like to check out our blog on 121 meetings.
If this is your first meeting then you won’t be able to plan ahead. But while you’re listening to the one minute introductions make a note of anyone that you think would make a good onward conversation for you and ask for a 121 during the Contributions section of the meeting.
If you’ve attended a Growth Community meeting before then it’s a good idea to plan ahead and bring along your thank yous and anything you’ve done to help anyone since your last visit. You might also have a list of people that you met last time that you now want a 121 with.
We allow visitors to come along to our meetings up to 6 times per calendar year. Not everyone is in a position to join our community so we want to ensure that we can keep good conversations going with people even if they are not a member.
You can use your six visits at six different meetings or you can use them all at the same one. It’s your choice.
You are welcome to use your visits up at online and/or in person events. You’ll find the format of our online and face to face meetings very similar so you might like to try them both out.
We open our meetings 10- 20 minutes before the advertised time so that people can enjoy some extra open networking. Online meetings open 10 minutes before and all attendees are added to a breakout room with a couple of other people. At an in person event you can arrive early, grab a coffee and chat to whoever is there.
Our meetings are 1.5 hours long with some time for open networking before and after.
Our online meetings usually about an hour but may run to an hour and quarter.
Our meetings are in person and online. You can view and book on to them from our Locations page.
We don’t charge our guests for attending our meetings. You can come up to SIX times a year completely free of charge.
We work with venues that either provide us with a free or heavily discounted room hire so we ask that you support them by buying a drink (if available) and share them on social media.
We keep our group level meetings single category. Not because we want to ‘lock people out’ but to keep them productive. We are however a very collaborative organisation and we actively encourage similar businesses to work together at community level.
You can see the members of each group by clicking on each location on our meetings page.
If you book onto a meeting where your category is already taken we may suggest that you visit a different meeting where there isn’t already a very well established member doing what you do.
The easiest way to check is to visit the location page of the group and you will see all the members listed. If you aren’t sure if you overlap with a member then feel free to email admin@thegrowthcommunity.co.uk and we’ll put you in touch with the group leader.
In our small structured groups we only sell one seat per type of business. This helps to keep the meeting productive and makes it easier for people to make introductions and pass referrals. If someone in the group is already a well established member in your business category, we usually suggest that you visit a meeting where your seat isn’t taken so that you get good use of your networking time.
If we think that you won’t get the most out of attending one of our meetings we will signpost you to another. Often though, our members like meeting people who do similar things to them, so if you are still keen to go along they will often be very open to getting to know you. But as we do offer a single category policy we leave it up to the member to make the final decision.
Yes we send out names and email address of all members and guests within a few hours of the meeting ending. But feel free to share business cards and other marketing materials if you are at an in person event or in the chat at an online meeting.
No! It’s up to you what you wear. Don’t feel you need to dress up for our meetings, but if you are usually a suit wearer then that is fine too. We want you to be your authentic ‘you’ so wear what you feel is appropriate.
Growth Community meetings attract a diverse variety of businesses so you never know who is going to be there. We are very inclusive and invite anyone who would like to network with us. We believe that it isn’t necessarily the people in the room that are our target. It’s the people THEY know. So, you never know where a connection will take you!
If you are new to networking please let us know – either drop us an email beforehand to admin@thegrowthcommunity.co.uk or tell whoever welcomes you when you arrive. We pride ourselves on being welcoming and friendly so we’ll make sure you have someone to talk to and we’ll give you whatever support you need during the meeting. We meet loads of people on their first ever networking meeting and they always give us great feedback on how much they enjoyed the experience.
Don’t worry. You’d be surprised how many people are nervous at networking meetings – even the people who don’t seem it! If you aren’t confident starting a conversation then we can help you. If you are nervous about speaking in front of people then it’s a good idea to write down your one minute pitch as it will help you if you go blank! The important thing is to get out of your comfort zone and give it a whirl. You’ll be very glad that you did! And we are here to help you if you want us to.
We don’t generally provide refreshments unless the venue doesn’t have anywhere to purchase a drink. Most of our venues have somewhere you can purchase a drink (or food) and we actively encourage you to support them as most of them offer their facilities free of charge to us. You can of course bring your own drink with you. Your meeting confirmation will tell you if tea and coffee is provided. The day before your meeting you’ll get an email with full details from the group leader.
The Growth Community uses a structured format. That means we sit around a table and follow a structured format including one minute introductions, a 10 minute member showcase presentation, contributions and a short learning point. We do offer some time to do some open networking though at the start of our meetings and again at the end if you are in person.
You can view information about our meetings here.
Yes. There is time at the start and at the end of the meeting for open chatting. If you are online you will get some time in a break out room with a couple of other people at the start of the meeting.
Absolutely. If you are new to business you’ll definitely want to make some new business friends, find useful suppliers, start developing relationships with synergistic businesses and learn more about ways to grow your business. You get all that and more from getting out and networking with your business community. There is likely to be things you can do for them too. It’s never to early to start networking!
Even if you haven’t started your business yet getting out networking will be incredibly useful. Being around people who have been through the highs and lows will really support you in developing your ideas and you’ll learn a lot too. Come along, we’d love to hear what you are planning!
You can get so many things from a networking meeting. You will get to connect (or reconnect) with people in your business community. You’ll probably learn something from listening to the presentations and you will be able to set up some follow up conversations with useful people too. You can find suppliers and you can also get a great feeling from helping other people too.
If you can’t make your meeting just email admin@thegrowthcomunity.co.uk or if you locate your booking confirmation email you can return your ticket via the link.
To rebook just visit the group page you want to rebook and choose a new date. You can find out more on the locations page.
To find a meeting visit our locations page.
If there isn’t an meeting in your area why not try out our online meeting? Have a look at our locations page to book on.
121 FAQ
A follow up or 121 meeting is where you sit down and get to know someone better from your networking meeting and see how you can work together or support each other in the future.
Our blog has FIVE tips for conducting a productive follow up.
A networking meeting is really just a place to connect or reconnect with some other business people. Apart from a quick one minute pitch we really don’t learn enough about people to do anything proactive. Your follow up is an opportunity to spend 30-60 minutes with someone, learning about each other and identifying ways that you might be able to help each other in the future. If you hit it off then why not organise to talk again and build on what you’ve started?
Listen and chat! Always good to aid the process with a coffee or tea (or even a slice of cake!) It can be in person, online or on the phone. The aim is to get to know each other as people and what you get up to in business.
If you get time, have a think about what else you could do for each other. Invite them to another networking, have another coffee in a couple of months time, do a joint marketing activity… the important thing is to listen as well as chat. Nobody likes spending an hour not being able to get a word in edgeways!
You can learn how to maximise your 121 meetings in our blog.
It’s entirely up to you! If you’re near each other perhaps meet at a coffee shop or go for a walk. Alternatively, you can chat on Zoom or Teams or even on the phone. You could even meet up at an expo and chat while you’re wandering around. Be creative!
Again it’s up to you. Some people allow 30 minutes, some people put in an hour. Depends on what you are doing and where.
The best way to organise your 121 meeting is straight after the meeting before you leave. Then it is in and sorted. Some people have electronic diary links that you can use to slot yourself in. We provide a list of all attendees and the email addresses after every meeting so you can get in touch that way and connect on social media too.
After every meeting you will receive an email with a list of all the attendees and their email addresses. If you don’t want your email address sharing with the people in the meeting please let the group leader know.
Membership FAQ
If you are interested in learning more about membership of our community visit our membership page. If after you’ve read through that you have any questions or would like to speak to us about how it works then fill in the contact form at the bottom of the membership page or speak to the Group Leader of the meeting you’re interested in.
No. We don’t discuss membership in our meetings other than to say that the option is there.
We invite guests to our meetings purely for them to network – but if you are curious about being part of our proactive community you can visit our membership page for more info.
No. In fact most of our guests don’t join. Being a member of The Growth Community has to be right for you. If you just want to be a guest then you can use your six visits per calendar year. No pressure or annoying sales pitches!
We aim to keep our fees flexible and affordable. When you join you will pay a one off admin fee and then a monthly subscription. There is no long term contract but we do ask that you give us one month’s notice if you choose to leave. For more information and costs see our membership page.
Our members pay their fees by Go Cardless direct debit.
Most of our groups are capped at 15/16 members. We feel that keeping membership numbers at this level gives our members the best opportunity to be able to help each other without being overwhelmed by too much information. We want our groups to build really productive friendships and properly get to grips with what each other needs to be more successful in their business.
There is no minimum contract. We simply ask that you give us a month’s notice when you decide to leave us. Networking, like any other marketing activity, does take a bit of time to deliver and gain traction and it is essential that you are consistent about it! Most people tend to see some results within 3-6 months but the sustainable part comes from networking over a longer period of time. It is a long game activity!
Yes all of our members pay monthly by Go Cardless direct debit.
Yes. We don’t do narrow categories in our meetings. We tend to allow you to be exactly who you are without breaking it down into small categories. If there are other members who have crossover with you then we get you to agree which lanes you are keeping to in your meeting. If someone is too close we tend to suggest that you might be better in a different meeting rather than cause confusion or frustration!
Member only meetings take place every 6 weeks. (every third fortnight) They are one of the things that make The Growth Community different. The purpose of the meeting is for members to share what they are working on and what they need from their team to help them achieve it. It’s also a great opportunity for them to get to know each other better. Networking meetings can sometimes be a bit monotonous so the member meeting is a productive pause in the process to help support our members to get a good return on their investment.
Member only meetings are very informal. Every member gets to share what they are working on and what support they need. The other members can then identify what they can do to help.
Read this article to learn more about Member Only meetings and their added value.
