How To Start A Speed Dating Business – New research finds that using speed dating techniques early on can play an important role in strengthening entrepreneur-mentor bonds.
The connection that startup entrepreneurs and potential mentors make during their first “date” plays an important role in determining whether a mentoring relationship will develop.
How To Start A Speed Dating Business
Speed dating – an exercise where you can meet a room full of people in a short amount of time – is an exciting activity in itself. However, while you often don’t get immediate feedback from your date, the reality is very different for many early stage entrepreneurs.
Why Speed Dating Might Be More Effective Than Swiping
A new study, led by the Business School, explored early interactions between startups and people they’ve never met before.
While existing research shows that feedback helps entrepreneurs develop themselves and their business, it does not explain what influence it has on the future relationship between the entrepreneur and the outsider from whom they receive feedback.
Analysis of 54 speed dates revealed that these first meetings can turn into long-term mentoring relationships depending on the nature of the feedback, how potential mentors use their expertise, and whether there is any early commitment to feedback.
There are many factors as to whether entrepreneurs were likely to recommend a follow-up meeting with a potential mentor. They were:
Nj’s ‘shark Tank’: Startups Risk It All With Financial ‘speed Dating’
Report author Dr Ruben van Werven said the findings could have implications for start-up managers or those receiving feedback from strangers such as early friends in the workplace.
“As more people become entrepreneurs, receive feedback from strangers, and need a mentor, it is important to better understand how entrepreneurs meet their mentors.
“Our research shows that speed dating skills, such as building on what the other person is saying and avoiding the temptation to show how knowledgeable you are, are key to turning a first meeting into a long-term relationship.”
“The relational dimension of feedback interactions: A study of early feedback encounters between entrepreneurs and potential mentors”, by Dr Ruben van Werven, Lecturer in Entrepreneurship at the Business School. Professor Joep Cornelissen, Professor of Corporate Communication and Management at the Rotterdam School of Management. and Dr Onno Bouwmeester, Associate Professor in Management Consulting and Business Ethics at Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam will be published in The British Journal of Management. Speed Mentoring is a riff on speed dating that allows trainees and early career teachers to meet multiple mentors in a short period of time. Have you ever wished you could have ten minutes for advice or a chat with an experienced researcher outside of your immediate circle of mentors? This is a great way to arrange this opportunity.
Virtual Speed Dating: Red Flags
We host speed coaching at our institution and at the national Translational Science conference. An hour with five separate talks is a practical format. Here’s what we learned about setting up a session so you have a recipe for making your own speed coaching. (Samples of hardware are available at the end of this post.)
Find the right date and place. Coordination with other activities may be ideal. Put speed coaching into an afternoon breakout session during a campus research forum, or add it before your annual mentoring awards and career development event. For space, aim for the sweet spot between everyone being close enough to move easily and quickly between advisors and not so packed together that it’s hard to have a private conversation.
Collect the pool of mentees and mentors to invite. Works best with twenty or more of each. This allows for matching with research interests and career focus, while avoiding pairing mentees with their own mentors or collaborators. Two good sources for identifying mentors, beyond the usual leaders associated with professional development programs, are your institution’s database of funded researchers and conference registrations if you do road speed mentoring.
To get your target number, you will need to ask a large group of mentors. A ratio of 2 invitations for every 1 mentor needed is a good place to start if you are planning early, given senior faculty calendar constraints and travel. Depending on the size of the group, plan to have 2 to 3 additional mentors on standby to cover last minute cancellations, with 1 or 2 attending the event as a backup for no shows. (Nothing sadder than an empty slot on your prom card.) As you confirm RSVPs from mentees, also keep a waiting list of mentees to add if others drop off.
A Brief Analysis Of Survey Data From A Speed Dating Event
Use a survey in advance to help match matches. This helps you avoid matching people who already know each other well and lays the foundation for matching mentors and mentees with similar research content and areas of expertise. (Sample survey items at the bottom of the post.) When running sessions locally, we also ask mentees to mention their mentors, partners, and anyone they’d rather not be matched with because they already have access to the person.
Match mentors and mentees. For a one-hour session, schedule five pairs for each person. This allows for a five-minute introduction, nine minutes for a mentee to speak to each mentor, and two minutes for transition time between each pairing. For pairing, the goal is to maximize the total number of content and methodological areas (or other characteristics you choose, such as gender or department) that match between a mentor and a mentee. We use an optimization modeling program in SAS. Matching can also be done manually or using spreadsheets. Start by giving each mentee a very high quality match and then move on to the next rounds, remembering not to use a mentor more than five times.
Assign your participants spots in the room. Seniority has benefits. We let our mentors hold their positions and the mentees move around the room. We use table stands with a number to ensure people can quickly see where they need to be, as well as a table tent with each mentor’s name.
Make a large poster of table assignments for mentors and first table assignments for mentees so everyone can quickly find their seat at the start of a session.
How To Start A Speed Dating Business
Other things to place on each table include bottled water, paper, and pens—we see you paying close attention to these events!
Have a moderator and keep a strict time! Mentor/mentee pairs inevitably engage in discussion. To avoid drift and ensure that each couple gets the full nine minutes, your coordinator will need to be firm and persistent in making sure everyone is moving at the same time.
If possible, send a feedback survey to participants via email that includes space for open-ended comments. Thank the mentors for their time in person at the end of the event, and then include feedback from mentors about why they appreciated the opportunity. could consider a form of in-depth sales prospecting known as business speed dating. Or maybe you’ve heard of professional speed dating, but you may have professional speed dating questions like:
Whether you’re planning to attend a speed networking event or would like to host one, this information will help you learn what professional speed dating is all about and what you should do and be prepared for.
Strategies To Tackle A Law Firm Speed Networking Event
Professional speed dating is a face-to-face search method often known as professional speed dating and speed networking. Its goal is to get you in front of as many potential business clients and customers as possible.
And yes, the method is named after the speed dating people use to find potential soul mates. It is very likely that the idea for this type of sales event actually came from speed dating, however, I also know that these meetings have been popular in the international logistics industry among overseas shipping agents for decades. (I should know. My company, Advanced International Logistics, is a leader in this industry!)
However, this way of running a business is certainly not limited to one industry and has found its way from its origins in the United States to speed dating business events around the world.
I’ve heard this method of meeting potential business partners compared to manning booths at trade shows, but it’s not quite the same. Yes, at a trade show booth you meet a lot of people throughout the day, over and over again, but generally this is ad hoc while speed networking is planned and extremely methodical.
Speed Dating Concept
Well, for starters, there isn’t a single shape, but most of them look like musical chairs. Many variables are taken into the speed networking formats that go into the final organization of business speed networking events.
Round Robin: These meetings are a bit more of a “take what you get” type of meeting. You’re usually in short meetings with random participants one-on-one one-on-one. It’s not normal for these meetings to be very short, anywhere from one to ten minutes, so you’ll need to have your elevator speech ready. Sometimes the arrangement is as simple as two rows of chairs facing each other so that each side moves in the opposite direction when their time is up. Other times there will be an entire room
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