At The Top Networking » social clubs

Why a Social Club Can Help Your Business

Erik — Wed, 12 May 2010 22:00:15 +0000

I’ve always known the Skyline Club to be a wonderful facility on top of the One American Plaza in downtown Indianapolis. I’ve seen how it looks during the At The Top networking events, but I had the opportunity to visit the club for one of my first visits times at a non-At The Top event.

The gracious folks at the Skyline Club invited us to a special lunch to tell us about the club, and everything it has to offer. What I didn’t realize is that the Skyline Club is part of a larger organization, and that by being a member at Skyline, members can visit other clubs as real members, not just guests. So if you’re a frequent traveler, you can visit other clubs in other cities, including golf clubs, and use their facilities and enjoy the amenities.

The Skyline Club also has a number of different networking events for members, whether you’re a young professional, a regular member, or even a corporate member. You can meet other club members who can help you grow your business and provide you with some great opportunities.

I didn’t mean for this to sound like a commercial, but I was really impressed by everything the Skyline Club had to offer a business professional. Whether you want a place to entertain business guests, or just need a place to relax during the day, talk to Linda Houpt at the Skyline Club.Similar Posts:

A History of Social Clubs

Erik — Wed, 13 Jan 2010 18:00:06 +0000

I got to wondering about social clubs, especially since the Skyline Club has been very good to us, allowing us to use their facilities for At The Top networking events. I figured the history of social clubs would hearken back to Britain, but wasn’t sure how they made their way to modern-day America. So I did a little digging, and saw that social clubs have a long, rich history that goes back more than 450 years.

The first clubs were formed in Britain in the early 1700s, although there were clubs that existed in the 1600s as just informal gatherings who met to eat and drink together. In fact, the first clubs were formed around the drinking of coffee, which had been introduced from Turkey in 1652.

According to Wikipedia, working men’s clubs were developed in England so working-class men could “attend lectures and take part in recreational pursuits.” One of the most famous clubs was the Bread Street or Friday Street Club. Some believe that William Shakespeare and Sir Walter Raleigh were members of Bread Street, although no one knows for sure. Still, it’s nice to think they might have.

In the rest of Europe, social clubs were more political that gastronomic and recreational, many of them forming around a political ideal or movement. A lot of these clubs were shut down or repressed after their particular movement or party was shut down by the political majorities (revolutions and major upheavals having played their part, as well).

Clubs have certainly changed and improved since they started over 450 years ago. But the one idea remains the same: camaraderie and fellowship. Meeting new people, forming new personal and business relationships, and having fun. Whether you’re interested in making new friends, finding new business contacts, or plotting the overthrow of the French monarchy, social clubs are a great way to make that all happen. (Okay, maybe not the French monarchy thing, but you get the idea.)

After you attend an At The Top event, visit the Skyline Social Club again and see what they have to offer.

For more information on the Skyline Club, call (317) 263-5000 or visit www.Skyline-Indy.com.Similar Posts:

Can Social Networking Help Real-World Networking?

Erik — Mon, 11 Jan 2010 20:46:24 +0000

If you’re not on Facebook, Twitter, or LinkedIn, you’ve probably heard people talking about Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn.

These online “social networks” make it possible for people to connect via the Internet, which is great if you don’t have the time or energy to connect with dozens, or even hundreds, of people who want your attention.

I’m on several social networks. You can find me on Twitter (Facebook, on Smaller Indiana and on LinkedIn.

You would think that with all the time I spend on my social networks, I wouldn’t get out much.

You’d be wrong.

I’ve actually been able to leverage my social networks into real-life networks, filled with real-life people. These are people who are more than just online buddies that I play games with or do goofy stuff with on Facebook. These are real people who own their own businesses, or work in large corporations.

I’ve been able to use these networks to create opportunities for my own business, find speaking opportunities, and make connections for other people.

A lot of these connections would have never happened if it hadn’t been for my social networking. I connected with people offline, before I connected with them online. And I was able to enhance and grow the relationship through my online efforts.

Think of your typical business relationship. You meet someone at an event like At The Top. You exchange business cards and promise to get together for lunch or coffee. A couple weeks go by, and you receive an email, reminding you that you met, and would you like to meet for coffee next week. Next week’s no good, but how about three weeks from today? That sounds fine, so you meet, do the typical small talk — where you live, where you went to school, how you got to where you are — and you’re out of time before you ever got to why you actually wanted to meet. So you arrange to get together next month, and you finally get the relationship going.

But what if you could connect online first? You meet at the event, exchange business cards, and then follow the person on Twitter and friend them on Facebook. You find out where they went to school, get an idea of where they live, and see that they went to college with one of your high school friends. You catch up on that person via Facebook email, and keep in touch via Twitter. You share some articles of interest with the other person, and they do the same for you.

Then, when you have coffee three weeks later, you already know more about the person. In fact, you’ve enjoyed interacting with this person online, you could even say you’re friends. You have a level of trust in place, you share some of the same experiences, and as a result, you’re immediately able to get down to business and do what you needed to do in the first place.

Basically, all the relationship building stuff that typically happens at that first meeting instead happened online. And thanks to the power of things like Facebook and Twitter, you were able to find out more stuff about the other person (and vice versa) than you ever could have done in 10 meetings.

Before you dismiss the effectiveness of social networking, ask some of your colleagues or some of the people you meet at At The Top this month about how they’ve been able to use it. Look for me, Karen Scharf, or Lindsay Manfredi, and ask us what we’ve been able to do with social networking just in the last couple of years.Similar Posts:

What Can a Social Club Do for You?

Erik — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 18:00:35 +0000

Here at At The Top, we’re lucky to have the support of the Skyline Club, on top of the One America building in Indianapolis. And as we hold our monthly meetings, we see the benefits of what the club does for people.

One of the reasons we chose the Skyline Club for At The Top is because we want people who are at the top of their game, whether they work in a large corporation, or have their own small business. We found that a lot of our potential members are already at Skyline, and a lot of people who come to At The Top are possible Skyline members. It’s a confluence of possibilities for both groups, so please forgive our cheerleading.

We’re occasionally asked why someone should join a social club. Isn’t networking with the Chamber or At The Top enough?

The best we can say is, it depends.

It depends on what your motivation is. It depends on what you hope to get out of the networking. It depends on who you’re expecting to meet, and why.

We like business networking events, because we go there with one goal in mind: to meet someone who can ultimately help our business. Whether it’s someone who becomes a customer, or someone who serves as a long-term referral source for us, sending friends and associates to us.

But there are times we just don’t want to “do” business. We want to talk to people, get to know them, without the spectre of business hanging over us. We love our chambers and business networking groups, but some days we just want to talk.

They also recognize that some days you want to do business. The Skyline Club is a great place for networking, which we all know is crucial to succeeding in business. Because the Skyline Club has people from every kind and size of business in Central Indiana, you’ll be able to make the connections that help you succeed in your ventures.

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Why Should I Join a Social Club?

Erik — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 02:16:25 +0000

As a rabid networker, I’m always looking for a way to meet new people. My daughter was explaining to one of her friends yesterday, “Anytime we go somewhere, my dad always seems to know someone. And if he doesn’t, he makes sure he meets someone before we leave.”

But what if you don’t have the opportunities to meet new people? Or there just don’t seem to be any organizations that fit your needs.

This is where a social club can really come in handy. The Skyline Club in Indianapolis allows you to meet other people who have the same interests as you, but without casting any expectations about meeting other people. This isn’t a dating service or friend finder. You go to the events you want, and meet as many or as few people as you would like to meet.

Social clubs have several events throughout the month, and you’re able to pick and choose which ones you attend. As a member of the club, you’re invited to each and every one of them, so why not try out a few and see what you enjoy?

The Skyline Club, which is graciously hosting our At The Top events, has been a wonderful place to visit so far. While I was at our inaugural At The Top event last week, I met one of the Board of Governors, and spoke with her for quite a while. We talked at length about her life and career, and how she ended up working for so many different charities.

Anyone who is interested in meeting a lot of high-powered people in the city should join and try to spend as much time at a social club as they could. It’s a great way for anyone — new entrepreneur or established businessperson — to meet people who can be very beneficial to your career.Similar Posts:

November At The Top Recap: Mickey Maurer

Erik — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 18:00:38 +0000

I attended the very first At The Top Networking event at the Skyline Club on Tuesday. I’ve been to a lot of networking events in the last two years, and have met more than my fair share of the city’s small business people and entrepreneurs.

Indianapolis Business Journal founder and former Indiana Secretary of Commerce Mickey Maurer was our speaker for the evening, there to tell us about how he made his way to the top.

“I’m not at the top yet,” he told us, although he has come close. Ten years ago, Maurer climbed to the peak of Mt. Kilimanjaro, the highest peak in Africa, and told us how he stood on top of a small mound of dirt at the very top. “But I got light-headed, and had to get back down,” he told the crowd of 150 networkers.

Maurer said he has spent his entire career being an entrepreneur. “Entrepreneurship is a game where you use money to keep score.” He said he has made his career by specializing in startups and turnarounds. He opened the first racquetball club in Indianapolis, turning it into the 2nd largest racquetball chain in the country. He started the Indianapolis Business Journal, a newspaper that is still thriving in a declining media market. He helped start the National Bank of Indianapolis.

If an entrepreneur wants to learn anything from Maurer’s life, it’s the fact that he specialized in just two areas: startups and turnarounds. He didn’t try to run a large corporation. He didn’t try to stand on the shoulders of giants. He saw a need that no one else could fill, and he filled it.

But that’s not what made him a success. He said he attributes his success to ten lessons he has learned along the way. The most important?

“People are the most important part of any business deal,” Maurer said. “I look at the people first, before I look at the numbers. If I don’t like the people, I don’t take the deal.”

Maurer said this goes for employees of a business as well. Treat your people well, and you’ll succeed.

We then got to hear about some of the amazing women in Maurer’s latest book, “19 Stars of Indiana,” a book about 19 living legends in Indiana. It’s a must-read for anyone who has a strong woman in their life, or wants to help inspire one.

Finally, let me just say how much I enjoyed my time at the Skyline Club. They really made me feel special. As I spent time time talking with different people at the event, the staff was very attentive and treated us well. The food was excellent, and some of the best hors d’oeuvres I’ve enjoyed in a long time: pecan fried oysters, lobster bisque, pumpkin bisque, and a lobster salad on a roll. I also had my very first Old-Fashioned. I still don’t quite know what it was, but I liked it.Similar Posts: