FabianPattberg.com

This week has been a good week. And I wanted to finish it off with a quick recap and some reflections on how much and how little business networking has changed in my opinion.

The week in review:

• The new version of the SustainabilityForum.com is nearly ready. A few more tweaks and we are ready to go next week (Fingers crossed).
• Business is going well too. So far I cannot feel the economic downturn. But I think I can consider myself lucky and I am grateful for that.
• I was able to purchase the domain Fairtrader.org this week. Who knows…that might be another project down the line. A really nice name. Short and memorable.

21st Century Business Networking
This week has also been a fantastic business networking week. I was able to connect with so many great new people. And that made me think. How many people would I have been able to connect with this week and the last few months without the use of some of the modern online business networking tools.

The answer is pretty clear…..not a lot. Especially not from all across the world.

I then remembered that I recently talked to my father about this and how amazed he was about these networking tools.

He said that he is and always has been relying on three business main ways to expand his business network:

• Attending and organizing conferences and workshops
• Being a member of a business club or other clubs in interest areas such as sport, art, etc.
• Cold calling possible business partners and customers to arrange one to one meetings.

Our new networking activities that have drastically changed the way we now network enhance these three business networking activities in my opinion. I categorize them in three areas:

• Social Media: Tools such as Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, etc. help us to connect to like minded people easier then ever before without having meet in person.
• Online Business Meetups: Websites such as Meetup.com etc. now make it incredibly easy to find meetings and get-togehters with like minded people in your local, regional and national community.
• The evolution of modern communications: Modern communication tools such as Skype and the normality of telephone international flat rates make it so much easier and convenient to reach out to people all across the globe.

Again, the beauty of these new tools is that they all enhance and increase your networking possibilities in a way that my father only dreamed about 20 years ago. And I think this is only the beginning. We will see great new developments in these areas ove the next 10 years.

But I also believe these old and new ways of networking have one outcome in common: To really build a proper and long lasting business relationship we always have to meet in person as business is still and will always be conducted between individuals that know and trust each other.

Modern business networking technology will not change this basic law no matter what. And this is a good thing.

Picture Credit: luc legay

It is the weekend again and I can not believe how fast the week has passed me by. It seems like yesterday that I woke up to start the week in a productive way.

In any case. A lot has happened during this week. Here are some highlights:

• I had a very productive meeting with our website designer for the new SustainabilityForum.com. Still a lot of work to do but we are getting there eventually.
• I finally met Mark Seall in person on Tuesday. Great guy. Hopefully we will still do a lot of work together now and in the future to come..
• Had a very successful client week with a very important meeting on Thursday. It has been a good week indeed.

This weekend Anne and I went to view several properties in the London commuter belt. One interesting property stands out at the moment. But lets wait and see whether we could be able to rent this house. Strangely enough was the rent raised by 20% on the day we viewed it. Raised? In this weak property market? Very strange indeed. We really want a change of location but it also needs to offer value for money. This is key. Otherwise are we staying where we are.

This week will be a busy one again. I am off to Germany today again (currently waiting for the flight at the airport while writing this post) to see another client tomorrow and will fly back on Tuesday to spend the rest of the week in London.

My highlight of the week will be the inauguration of the Barack Obama in Washington. I hope this will be a great day. A day for America to kick off its new age of being a true and just power in the world again. The past 8 years were mostly wasted years but we now need to forget the past and concentrate on the future. Our Global Future. I am not an American but I hope that Barack Obama will become more then just an American president. I hope he will be a global leader for change.

Have a good week everyone.

Fabian

Well here we are again. Saturday and it is time form my weekly catch-up of the events in my business, etc.

I was very happy to stay the whole week in London in order to be able to catch-up on my emails and more after a week’s holiday in Crete. It is just amazing how much you can get behind if you are only out of contention (and emails) for a week. Don’t get me wrong, I loved the break and it was really needed in order to get the head free and switch to the next gear for the rest of the year. But I guess that is why the holiday season is there as nothing happens then and you can have peace of mind that you are not missing much. If you do holidays while everyone is working 100% you are bound to loose contention on many topics and developments.
Anyway. I am happy to report that I have finally concluded the talks with two “potential” clients to become clients. This means that I am pretty much booked out in terms of monthly consulting days for the next 6 months. This is great news and it will enable me to make for sophisticated plans for 2009.
The redevelopment of the forum is also going according to plan. I think we will have something to report and show before we all go on our Christmas holidays. Keep your fingers crossed.
I published three hopefully interesting posts on my blog this week.
Here are the titles including links:

• How To Read A Sustainability Report (Very popular and many interesting comments)
• Choosing The Right Domain Registry
• Top 5 Sustainability & CSR News Stories this week – 16.10.2008

I will be in Germany for most of the upcoming week at client meetings and then in Krefeld to catch-up with lawyers, advisors and some good friends of course.

All the best,
Fabian