Elbow Room Networking

Devonshire House Network – Elbow Room Networking Events 

Elbow Room Networking Groups – from Devonshire House – are dedicated personal networking events.  They provide the opportunity for you to meet new people through Devonshire House as well as catch up with people you may have met before at Devonshire House.  They seek to replicate the style and feel of actual physical face to face networking events.

Networking has been at the heart of the Devonshire House offering since its original founding in 1967.  Our purpose is to create for our members thinking time and space for key business issues, and where people make the difference. Delivered primarily through our broad range of high-level Speaker Events, Panel Debates and Special Events, we have extended our offering to include a direct Networking facility – our online Elbow Room Networking Event.  At the heart of Devonshire House are senior decision makers keen to discover and explore original thinking and information generated from all the Events we promote.

How do we define Networking?  It means creating, activating and nurturing the fullest range of human interactions to promote mutual best interests – business or personal. But current upheavals – driven by Covid-19, Technology, Brexit and personal and corporate evolving aspirations are revolutionising the whole concept of Networking. Please see Re-discovering Networking for a more detailed analysis.  The element that many say is missing through screen based “contacts” is the human interaction. Elbow Room Networking Events seek to overcome this by creating a different online networking Event – we try to get as near as possible to the face to face experience of pre-Covid days.

Main purpose of Elbow Room Networking

The main purpose is to meet the others in your Breakout Groups – find out who they are and what they do – and ensure that the others have your own contact details.  After every Event, we will invite all attendees to join our private LinkedIn Special Group to which you will all have access. This means that you will be able to make contact with others in the Group and include them in your personal network.  We will maintain this LinkedIn Group and promote it through our Elbow Room Networking. Out thinking is that – as with face to face networking – you may well meet up and explore usual networking possibilities.

Meeting Agenda

We will publish a single item Agenda.  This will be introduced by the Facilitator/Host and is designed to be a thread running through the Event around which delegates can talk and interact with those in their Breakout Group, the over-riding aim of which is Networking.

Facilitator/ Host and Breakout Rooms

Each Elbow Room Networking session will be produced by Devonshire House and – wherever possible – managed and facilitated by a guest Co-Host. We will then allocate random breakout groups through zoom – ask each group to choose a group Spokesperson to guide the allocation of time to individuals and to agree a brief report-back commentary on the single-item Agenda.

Programme

The Event will last for 60 minutes -5 minutes for the Facilitator/ Host to set the scene and announce the single item Agenda; 15 minutes for our Guest Speaker to set the discussions; 20 minutes for our Breakout Rooms; 20 minutes for our Feedback and Discussion. This pacey Agenda calls for discipline and good humour to get through this concentrated timetable in 60 minutes.

Always online, each Elbow Room Networking Event is centred around Breakout Rooms – between 7 and 10 attendees in each – and managed by a Group Leader. All Attendees are invited-  in turn – to tell the Group about themselves – time allocation will vary according to circumstances –  but speaking quickly and succinctly – works best!  Topics and Guest Speakers are different every time.

Cost

Free to Attend!

After the Event

We will facilitate the sharing of contact details within the LinkedIn Group with those who have elected to join it through a Devonshire House Elbow Room Networking Group so people can carry on keeping in touch – and, maybe, arranging to meet as and when possible.