Global Entrepreneurship Week kicked off at CSUS in Sacramento Tonight!
Over 200 local business owners and students gathered to hear keynote speakers Shari Fitzpatrick of The Berry Factory and John O'Donnell first president and CEO of Vision Service Plan (VSP).
They both were dynamic and shared their secrets to success. I had the pleasure of following them on stage! Shari has always been someone I have followed in the business community as she has built something that every Sacramentan has watched develop from local berry shop to an international empire!
I briefly talked about Networking, SacGNN and then lead the group in a large round of "Speed Networking! Everyone did a great job finding new people to network with.
At the end I asked for anyone who made a new connection that night to raise their hand... and the room was full of raised hands!
During the last round of networking, Nick McGill, of Heroic Media came up on stage to say "hello". Nick is a part of the GNN story, as he was at an event with me when the original idea to have a "one-stop-shop" calendar began to play out. It was Nick who lit a "fire" under me to call my web designer and put into motion the development of what was the start of Get Networking Now! He had been to a local focus group with other entrepreneurs and during a conversation at our networking group about the focus group he said "You know what the number one thing was that people in the focus group said that they would like to see? A one-stop-shop networking calendar that lists all of the networking events in the area!"
That idea was something that I had come up with on my own, but because I was working a full time job and part time owner in my husband's business, I didn't have the motivation to do it.
Nick was instrumental in delivering the "message" that motivated me to make a move to turn my "idea" into something tangible!
It was an awesome way to close out the evening! I truly had a moment of clarity and confirmed that my work with local business people is for the greater good!
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