David Crow reflects on Founders & Funders Dinner–We need community ambassadors
January 24, 2008 by Tris Hussey
Filed under Business News
From the sounds of it the Founders & Funders dinner was a success. David Crow, in true social media fashion, gives an honest appraisal of the even. I like what he got into at the end of the post–the role of community ambassadors:
Attending StartupCampMontreal started me thinking about the experience of social networking events. It ties into previous posts, Value to the audience, about what is the goal of these events. Then how do you design the event experience to facilitate the goals. Thinking about Founders & Funders, the goal was a social evening that connected entrepreneurs and funders in a context outside of a pitch. We did a great job, we provide an awesome venue (it was a little noisy), a great meal, some social lubricant, and a great group of people. Many of the funders said “I feel like I know half the people but I haven’t connected with them”. This is no surprise the funders list in Toronto is pretty small (it’s missing a few folks like David Ossip, but he was invited just unable to attend). I watched a few entrepreneurs that were new to the crowd float around, struggle to enter conversations, not because they weren’t capable, but because the amount of effort required to network is huge.
What I realized at StartupCampMontreal is networking where you are the new guy is exhausting. I think there is a real role in the community for ambassadors. There are people who have been a fixture in the community since very, very early. The role of ambassador is to connect people. Every first-time attendee is assigned an ambassador, whose job it is to introduce them to 3 people. Not 3 random people. Not 3 people that are your friends. But 3 people that would benefit from the connection. This means learning a little bit about the n00b. Read their blogs. Check out their Social Graph. Talk to them before hand. Source: David Crow: Founders & Funders - It’s a wrap
It’s hard breaking into a “scene”. I was pretty lucky in that I fell into the Vancouver scene as part of Qumana and they were hooked into the “right” folks … from there it’s just snowballed.
IMHO the folks of Bryght-Raincity are the folks to meet in Vancouver. They are welcoming folks. Great, smart people who will help you meet folks.
Amazing isn’t it? I think I can trace all my social media connections back to meeting Roland Tanglao and Boris Mann. Wow. That’s pretty cool actually.
So, who are the connectors in your city?
thanks tris!
we’re all connectors now (including you of course!)
Tris,
I think there are connectors and ambassadors. Example connectors are Boris and Roland or Leonard Brody, example ambassadors would be David Eaves - http://eaves.ca/ or Austin Hill.
It’s a subtle difference. Maybe not one worth pointing out.
We try to be friendly and welcoming around Raincity HQ - Thursday afternoons are often open Bar-B-Q with a bunch of smart folks enjoying meat and (occasiaonally mind-blowing) conversations.
Techies, connectors, ambassadors and evengelists rolling through Vangroovy, be sure to give us a shout.
David sometimes I think connectors can be great ambassadors … but regardless hope there are more of those dinners. Maybe on this side of the country next time!