[See the bottom of this message for detailed feedback from Wharton alumni who participated in July's Speed Networking event hosted in San Francisco.]

The Wharton Club of Northern California is pleased to introduce a high-impact networking initiative for our Club members. Our goal is to enable you to rapidly increase business opportunities through the Wharton Alumni Network. While our social and professional events are great for what they are designed to do (and we have had some great ones recently, haven't we?), they don’t always lend themselves well to high-impact networking.

What This Event Is: face-to-face networking that quickly promotes alumni helping alumni grow their respective businesses. Each participant has 1 minute to say their proverbial, “Elevator Speech”, combined with context of their company’s direction, challenges, near-term objectives. This is followed by a brief 5-minute discussion on how to take the next steps if there is a good match. 7 minutes total and then off to the next opportunity. Over the course of 75 minutes, an alum will have the opportunity to meet up to 8-10 other alumni. You might not have an opportunity to meet everyone in the room, but at the end, we will also spend time allowing you to introduce people you have met this evening to other people who you think they should meet (but may not have already done so.)

Impact: (1) You will have the opportunity to hone and perfect your elevator pitch. (2) You will meet a large number of Wharton alumni in one evening who you can follow up with later at your convenience. (3) The structure of the evening will help ensure that you meet the right people that evening in a brief amount of time.

Register Online
Date: Tuesday, August 22th. 6:30-6:45pm Warm up vocal cords. 6:45-8:00 Networking event. 8:00-9:00 Socialize & consolidate leads.
Place. Square 1 Bank, 1950 University Avenue, Suite 150, Palo Alto, California 94303 (in the same complex as the Four Seasons Hotel just off 101.)
Registration Fee: $10 for current WCNC members, Wharton summer interns, and accompanied guests; $25 for non-member alumni. $10 additional on each price after 4:00pm, Monday, August 21st and for day-of-event registrations, if available. Cancellation after 4:00pm, Monday, August 21st at the discretion of the WCNC.

Feedback from July's Speed Networking event in San Francisco included the below comments from two alumni:
- Because the event's stated purpose is professional networking, and there is an understanding that folks are looking to connect to build some aspect of their businesses, the caution and uncertainty of introducing business needs into a social setting is removed. While it is appropriate and expected to exchange pleasantries, it's also acceptable to move quickly into a discussion about each others' professional goals and how you can help one another.

- Good job, four keys to networking event are (1) quality of pool of people--you have this; (2) structure events so that connections are easily made; (3) Facilitate follow-up, by--for example--providing email lists; and (4) have regular events to create a group of people that know each other.