Name of your organisation: The Athena Network
Year Established: 2005
Website address: www.theathenanetwork.com
Email address: margot@theathenanetwork.com
Costs involved in becoming a member: £235standard annual / £200 founder (at launch of new group) membership plus £20 monthly meeting fee – all costs include VAT
Where and how often do you hold events: Lunch meetings are held monthly; currently there are five meeting groups around Edinburgh:
City Centre, West End, Pentland, Musselburgh & Portobello.
Can you briefly describe the structure of your events: Dynamic monthly meetings for businesswomen include interesting and topical business talks, networking, idea generation and support. One member per profession in each group creates opportunities for relationship building, strategic development of ideas and effective collaborations.
Your top three tips for effective networking:
1.Treat networking meetings as you would a sales meeting and your fellow networkers as prospective clients or agents for their contacts, so dress and prepare accordingly. This is your investment in time and money.
2. Prepare to do more listening than talking, and ask salient questions to find out about the contact’s business background, client sector, reasons for attending the event, what type of business they are looking for etc. The more you know, the more you can help or be helped.
3. Always take a diary so that you can book follow up meetings then and there. Follow up meetings are guaranteed to be more valuable and productive than the networking event
A big thank you to Margot Grantham for completing the profile. If you’ve attended Athena events in the past and would like to share your experience please feel free to leave a comment below.
