Pin a name tag to your chest, grab a drink and schmooze. It may be a tried and tested formula for business networking events, but making important new connections needn’t be limited to the four walls of a bar or hotel function room. Here are five imaginative ways to network outside the box:

Saunas

While most professionals dress to impress when meeting potential new business contacts, the Finnish attitude is definitely that less is more.



Unlike other networking events, there is no pressure – it is just really friendly and informal. Leon Carter, Active Sussex

In a country where winter temperatures struggle to make it above freezing, the tradition of sauna developed as a way to keep toasty on even the most frigid of days. Not only is it an activity which the Finns enjoy with friends, it is also a common way to meet and mingle with business associates.



Sweating in the nude might not sound like the best way to sell yourself and your business ideas, but it may be just the icebreaker needed to get conversation flowing. Finnish tech entrepreneur Ville Hulkko explains that the beauty of sauna is that it “equalises everyone”.



“When you walk into a business meeting, no matter what the agenda or who you are with, there is always a power play of some sort. There is a suit and you are trying to sell or someone is trying to sell to you,” says the founder of startup Valossa, a video search engine. “In a sauna such power plays are completely stripped away from all persons present. Not only your clothes, but titles and everything that you represent. You are purely just meeting the person that you go to sauna with as an individual, as a person.”

Hulkko explains that when he first moved to Silicon Valley in California to grow his business, he was invited to a sauna party at the house of a fellow Finn who worked for a top IT company. But what started out as Saturday night beers and socialising turned into an important opportunity to make business contacts. He claims the secret to naked networking is to simply relax and not get too hung up on any pre-planned sales pitch.

Hulkko believes in the tradition’s potential for the wider business community so much that he plans to build a mobile sauna which he will take to business events around the world for others to try.

Planes, trains and automobiles

While most people travelling on public transport do their best to avoid eye contact and engage with other passengers, striking up a conversation with a stranger on a train, plane or bus could result in useful business leads.

A number of apps are available to help business people make the most of a plane journey’s networking opportunities. Planely and KLM’s Meet & Seat both enable you to share your travel and profile information with other travellers, and then arrange to sit with those whose interests align with your own.

For fashion illustrator and designer Niki Groom, opportunity knocked while riding the bus in Sydney. The founder of Miss Magpie Fashion Spy had travelled to Australia to watch the 2000 Olympics and happened to be carrying her portfolio while travelling across the city.

She remembers: “Often people are quite intrigued when they see me carrying something like that. So a woman asked what was in my portfolio and I explained. She had a look, we had a bit of a chat and then she said: ‘You must meet my friend, she works at Vogue and am sure she would love to see your work’. Her friend happened to be the editor and she commissioned me that day.”

It was a crucial turning point for Groom’s career and the contacts she made as a result helped her establish herself in the industry. She believes the informality of the meeting meant she was able to bring the conversation round to her skills and talent more naturally than if they had met at a structured networking event.

Groom’s lucky break was, of course, just that – luck. But if you put a little thought behind your approach, a journey from A to B could yield great business benefits.

Burning Man festival

Revelry at Burning Man: the festival has become a magnet for business moguls. Photograph: BLM Photo / Alamy/Alamy

A week camping in the scorching desert sounds like a gruelling way to grow your professional network but Nevada’s annual Burning Man festival has become a magnet for business moguls and entrepreneurs alike.

The event held in the Black Rock desert north of Reno describes itself as a festival “dedicated to community, art, self-expression, and self-reliance” and attracts thousands of people from across the globe each year. Rubbing shoulders with the free-spirited hipsters it has become famous for, however, are big corporate names such as Google co-founder Larry Page.

While an official Burning Man spokesperson claims in an email that the festival is “not a networking event or place to try and make important business connections”, it has gained a reputation (for better or worse) as a popular place for business moguls, entrepreneurs and startups to network.

In a report by the San Francisco Chronicle, Burning Man director of business and communications Marian Goodell likens it to a “corporate retreat”. She adds: “The event is a crucible, a pressure cooker and, by design, a place to think of new ideas or make new connections.”

‘Sweatworking’

Can you network over weights and yoga as easily as you can sipping a glass of wine and nibbling on canapes? Advocates of the latest trend from the US which combines a workout with the opportunity to make business connections believe you can.

Sweatworking is an extension of the philosophy that time is money and that even a spin or circuit training session can be used to grow your business. It enables time-poor entrepreneurs and small business owners to combine fitness with all important networking.

In 2011, the New York Times reported that business people are eschewing the usual high-calorie option of entertaining clients with drinks and dinner in favour of exercise classes. Some British businesses are already experimenting with the concept in the UK. In 2012, Fitness First announced it would launch a business breakfast event that included spinning and post-class networking at a juice bar.

Apart from saving time and losing weight, are there any other benefits to networking in the gym? Jenn DeWall, a Denver-based career and life coach, told the New York Daily News that it is easier to make genuine connections with other people.

She said: “Sometimes the more challenging the class, the quicker the bond can form as the individuals have a shared success of pushing and challenging themselves to complete the class.”

Beach

Beach volleyball is an opportunity to make business connections in Brighton. Photograph: Petros Karadjias/AP

The beach usually involves sunbathing, ice-cream and a dip in the sea. It has also become a place for business owners to network while working on their tan.

A quick Google search yields plenty of options for the beach-bum business owner to make new connections in various sunspots from Orlando in Florida to Cannes in the south of France. Now Brighton is finding success with similar events along its famous seafront. The city may not boast white sandy beaches or perennial warm weather but the business community is nevertheless embracing the opportunity to network at a summer beach volleyball tournament.

The event, which was started by Active Sussex as part of a workplace health campaign, is for men and women and allows plenty of time between matches to chat and get to know other participants. It is, therefore, the perfect opportunity to make new business contacts.

Leon Carter at Active Sussex claims the event attracts a “real mix” of Brighton businesses, from recruiters to consultancies. He adds: “We really encourage the fun side of it. If you were a serious beach volleyball player you would look and be shocked. It is just to get people on the court and get them playing.

“Unlike other networking events, there is no pressure – it is just really friendly and informal.”

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