First event a success!

Thanks to everyone who came to our first event at Coupa Cafe in Palo Alto on May 31st! We had a great mix of people from different professions and grad schools, ranging from finance to architecture, from education to technology entreprenuership, from biochemistry to management consulting. Old friends reconnected, and new relationships were created. We had a casual announcement about 45 minutes through the hour with each of the co-hosts making some comments about why we are involved and talking about our hopes for where BA-Link could go in the future. Everyone was engaged, people stayed over an hour beyond the scheduled hour-long event, and many people thanked us for such a great event afterwards.

We wanted to share some of the things we learned while planning and hosting the first event. Hopefully these tips will be useful to co-hosts in the future...

What we could have improved:

1. Name tags are a great idea. Unfortunately we were not prepared with these. People did exchange business cards, and there has been much follow-up between new acquaintances, but name tags would have helped.

2. A smaller space is actually more effective. The closer people have to stand next to one another, the more likely they are to meet new people. It is a lot easier to turn around and talk to a new acquaintance who is standing shoulder-to-shoulder with you than it is to want a cross the room and extend a handshake to a new stranger. We realized after the event that we would have pushed the tables around the edges of the room closer to the center to give the effect of a smaller space.

3. Co-hosts should try to actively introduce people. We shared a little information about each of our own invites who were attending in advance, so we as co-hosts would know who might be interested in meeting each other across networks. This worked well, but it's always a good reminder that co-hosts should facilitate new introductions.

If you have any other comments (either successes or room for improvement) from the first event, we'd love to hear it!

BA-Link is led by you

BA-Link is a very simple organization, and everyone is encouraged to be as active as you want! The style of events is very flexible, but we have some suggestions to help you if you want to organize one yourself. We suggest that...

1. Each event has four co-hosts, diverse in interest and background. For our first event we had two men and two women co-hosts, all four from different ethnic backgrounds. We all have different intellectual and professional interests including politics and public service, technology business and entrepreneurship, education and law, and finance.

2. Co-hosts invite about 20 people each with the expectation that about half of the invitees are able to attend.

3. Try to hold the event in a relatively intimate setting. A personal residence could work nicely, but any bar or coffee shop with good acoustics is great.

4. Events can be held free of cost to co-hosts or with a minimal amount spent on refreshments. We were able to use a connection to get a significantly reduced rate on a great venue for the first event in Palo Alto. You can also have a dish to collect anything that attendees want to donate to help defer costs.

5. Make sure to pick an event date and time that makes sense for your area and invitees. Take into account anyone who may have to commute from work. We suggest scheduling the event for only one hour or an hour and 15 minutes. This way, people are more likely to show up on time, and they don't feel burdened by the length of the event. But inevitably, people will stay to mingle after the event.

We hope those tips are a helpful starter, but really these events should all cater to your own style and ideas!

Welcome to BA-Link!

Welcome to BA-Link! We're excited that you are a part of this newly formed community of young leaders in the Bay Area. BA-Link is a network of friends and colleagues with diverse backgrounds, interests and areas of expertise. We come together in comfortable settings to reconnect with old friends, learn about each other, and build new relationships. By extending our networks through trusted friends and colleagues, we can make the connections that open up new opportunities.