Speed networkers ready to talk entrepreneurship

Heard of speed dating? This morning Taranaki is having its first taste of the business version - speed networking.

To mark the start of Global Entrepreneurship Week, the New Plymouth District Council has invited 30 young local people to the new-age breakfast.

After they have eaten, at the blow of a whistle they will then participate in quick-fire one-on-one discussions on the question: "What difference can entrepreneurship make to Taranaki?"

Each discussion will last no longer than three minutes, at which stage the organisers will blow the whistle and participants will have to find a new partner and start the talking all over again.

"It's a fun, high-energy way to connect people. It's the easiest way to get connected - fast," says an international website set up to promote the week.

"There are only three rules: participants must speed network with people they don't know well or have never met before; it should be fun and all about sharing ideas and meeting with people; and no double dating - participants must change partners."

Organiser Kate Macnaught, the council's manager corporate strategy and policy, said speed networking was not unlike speed dating, but instead the young entrepreneurs would be discussing ideas.

"We'll have people ranging from school age to those already in business. It'll be interesting see what happens. Speed networking has worked very effectively in other places - ideas get crystallised very quickly."

The speed networking event is being filmed, and it will then be edited into a five-minute video package that will be televised in Washington and London as part of the launch of Global Entrepreneurship Week.

The participants' notes and the video will also be part of Puke Ariki's new exhibition, Taranaki Fortunes: Lost and Won.

- © Fairfax NZ News