Networking Groups

Brighton and Hove Chamber of Commerce

Enterprise Thursdays

Run by Sussex University to encourage their students to discover the exciting world of entrepreneurship and business, Enterprise Thursdays run some excellent talks with some great speakers. There's usually a mix of students and business people, so the events are a bit different to the more general business networking events. I've spoken at a couple of their events, and really enjoyed them. This was a particularly good talk by Marc Koska.

Oh, and they have free Harveys beer, which is always a good thing in my book.

AptleyNetworked

A new afternoon group in Hailsham, East Sussex, free to attend and casual in nature. Try it out, and let me know how you get on

Open Data Brighton and Hove

A specialist group for people who are interested in using data to make the world a better place, Open Data is led by the incredibly dynamic Greg Hadfield Do go if you're excited by the potential of open data, you'll love it, don't go if you just want to meet other business people and find customers - you'll hate it.

Friends of the Albion

As you might guess, this is for people who like football. Alas, not me then. But if you're into football, you can join this Brighton and Hove Albion networking group for business. I understand you don't have to be a football diehard, or even support the Seagulls (see I know what they're called) to join, just be up in time for a monthly networking breakfast.

As you might expect, there are more male than female members, but if you're a woman who likes football, then that's a good way to stand out.

Open Coffee Sussex

For people growing technology businesses in Sussex, an informal meet up at 8am over coffee in Brighton's Redwood coffee shop in Trafalgar Street. That's why it's called Open Coffee. Every 2nd Thursday of the month. Run by the lovely Ian Ozsvald and Jon Markwell , who's lovely too. Free to attend, except that you need to buy a cup of coffee. Open Coffee on twitter.

City College Business Club

Monthly business breakfast club with quite a lot of attendees. Each month has a different speaker, with some good topics. The business club is well organised and Brighton's City College does a great job of supporting it and welcoming people along. Follow the City College Business Club on Twitter.

Boundary Club - Sussex Cricket

Another business networking club organised around sport, this time, Sussex County Cricket Club brings together fans of cricket for some business networking. This one is more pricey, but your £950 membership does get you a couple of season tickets.

I'm told that you pretty much have to be into cricket to get the most out of this one, but for many people this is a great excuse to do some business while enjoying the games.

Dean's Business Club

Every third week, for a good mix of people go along to Dean's Business Club. You'll be asked to do a 1 minute elevator speech about your business, so it's good opportunity to practice your elevator speech and to make sure everyone knows exactly what it is you do.

Hove Business Association

HBA is run by some lovely people, and concentrates on what matters for businesses in Hove. They run breakfast meetings and social events. One to support if you're in Hove.

Business Magnets

Monthly meetings for people in mid Sussex around Crawley who want to get out and network. Get along and check it out.

Lewes Business Network

A new breakfast networking group in Lewes at Pelham House on the second Wednesday of the month, run by the very helpful Penelope Parker I hope to be speaking at this one sometime soon.

Business Curry Club

Hundreds of people, buckets of curry and lots of full on networking. A good price at £15 to include your meal. Lots of people are checking out the Brighton Business Curry Club.

Worthing Thing

I think this is a new networking group in Worthing (or maybe I just didn't know about it until now.) It's aimed at digital, online and creative businesses, but anyone can go along. If you go along, do let me know what it's like so I can keep this up to date.

First Friday Lewes

First Friday networking in Lewes is an open group that meets on the first Friday of the month (funny coincidence there) at The Volunteer in Lewes. It's free to come along, and there's getting to be a good crowd of people. It's run by a good friend of mine Robin Houghton (who knows everything you need to know about online marketing.)

Third Friday - Brighton

Just to be different, and so that you don't have to run around Sussex to go to all the First Friday events, this one is every third Friday of the month.

Sussex Speed Networking

Run by the folk at Sussex Business Bureau in Peacehaven (nice offices) who also do the Deans Business Networking. Part of the event is given over to facilitated speed networking, so you get to meet lots of people, but there's also time to talk to people in a more regular fashion.

There's a rolling lock out at this event, which means that you have to be the first accountant to book your place for any particular event, and then you know that there won't be any other accountants there. If you're an astrophysicist, you'll probably be able to go to all of them.

Full details of Sussex Speed Networking

Women's Business Clubs

The Womens Business Clubs, run by my lovely friend Kelly Stevens (the busiest, brightest woman in Sussex) run two types of networking. They do an online version where you can hook up with all sorts of women from across the UK, and they do local events. They have a Brighton lunch club, and are setting up another Sussex event for elevenses

Glug

Glug is described as notworking rather than networking, so it's really popular. Glug is aimed at creatives, but you don't have to be good at drawing and colouring in to go along.

Juice breakfast

Great breakfast at MyHotel in Jubilee Square in Brighton. There's quite an overlap between the people you meet here and the Brighton and Hove Chamber folk, but that's fine as they're all lovely.

South Coast Design Forum

Lovely group of people involved in all sorts of design activities, including the obvious ones like web and graphic design, but also people working on products, architects, and all sorts of stuff. I can't draw, so I can't go, but if this fits for you, I'd get along there.

Brighton BNI

BNI works really well for some people and not so well for others. If you can easily describe the nature of your business to others, are happy to generate lots of referrals for other people in the group, and like getting up early, the BNI could be for you. If you want to sell to consumers, or to other small businesses, then BNI is a good bet.

However, if you need to network with larger companies, or sell something a little bit strange or technical, then BNI may not be such a good investment.

I'd advise going along to a meeting - BNI is a bit of a Marmite organisation, you either love it or you hate it!

Many people in Brighton have recommended the Pavilion BNI chapter as being particularly welcoming and and dynamic.

BANG

BANG is Brighton Animators Group. Good links with the rest of the animation industry and run by the lovely Sarah Bird.

Brighton Breakfast Club

The Brighton Breakfast Club is similar to BNI. It's a closed group (ie, they only allow one member per type of business) and the group is very focussed on generating referrals for each other.

As with BNI, check it out, and see what you think...

Geek Wine Thing

Two niches meet up - as you might guess, this is a wine tasting attended by lots of geeks. I haven't been, but I might just...

CADIA

CADIA is for businesses based in the Gatwick Diamond and has a good mixture of businesses, including some bigger and more established businesses. Some people think that it's a bit more serious than some of the other groups and want to network across Sussex. This one is based in Crawley

Federation of Small Businesss

FSB has a lot of members and offers some good benefits when you join, including some money saving offers on banking and insurance.

They don' t have a lot of actual networking events in Brighton and Hove, as they're more focussed on lobbying on behalf of businesses nationally. Do check them out for the money they could save you though...

Brighton Farm

For freelancers, an informal meet up in a pub. Good reports of this weekly event, which has a very helpful and friendly vibe.

Institute of Directors

The IoD have networking events all over Sussex, although not so many in Brighton. It's not for everyone, as some people find it a bit too male dominated and (possibly) right wing. Some people have said that they expected the IoD to have a lot more bigger businesses, and were therefore disappointed when they found that most people who go are from small and medium sized businesses. As with all these networking groups, what's important is that you find an arena where you feel comfortable and that you can forge good relationships with people that you respect.

Wired Sussex

Wired Sussex has a calendar of events in Brighton and Hove, mostly of events for digital businesses, but doesn't seem to be running any events themselves any more.

Brighton Twitter Social Meetup

A new networking group held on the last Friday of the month at Geisha Arts on East Street in Brighton. Lovely welcomes from Wendy, but 4pm on a Friday is a bit of a weird time for me - I'm usually finishing off my week at that time. But you might have a different schedule and be able to finish early.

Mumpreneurs

I could give you lots of arguments about the name of this group (why can't women just be entrepreneurs, are you defined by being a mother) but I won't. I'll just tell you about Mumpreneurs, which is a friendly, informal group, meeting in cafes in different locations in Sussex. Peer support at its best.

Write Club

Networking for writers of all kinds - hosted by Leif Kendall and Ellen de Vries I like that they have a morning session at 8.30 and an evening session, seems to fit well with different types of writers.

Like Mind

Early meeting at RedRoaster, so you get some good coffee, usually with a particular topic for discussion. Interesting stuff...

BeScene

You have to say the name of this out loud to get the little pun, but BeScene are offering some interesting courses and events for creative and social entrepreneurs. I haven't been along to any of these, but I get the impression that this is more for lifestyle/small scale businesses - let me know what it's like so I tell people about it

Copyright of this list

Some naughty people have been taking this list, which I've lovingly put together, and passing it off as their own, in order to promote their own networking groups. You know who you are.

Please note that this list of networking groups, like everything else on the Joy of Business website, is copyright to Julia Chanteray and the Joy of Business, so please don't lift my content.

If you would like to link to this list, or any of the other content here, I'd love you to. Just make sure that you put a link to the page, and credit me. Then we're all happy.

Defunct groups you may have heard of

Despite a brief renaissance earlier this year, Women in Media seems to have died away, which is sad.

Wired Sussex are no longer doing their own events, although there are lots of other events for digital businesses in the city.

Damsels in Success, despite such a great name, seems to be not operating in Brighton any more.

Note that the Brighton and Hove Enterprise Agency has now merged with the Brighton and Hove Chamber of Commerce, who are continuing their series of networking events for small businesses.

I used to run Bagel Networking, and I know that some people still look for this. It was fun while it lasted, but is no more.

Vine Brighton has withered away

Sussex Hub at Tradewaves is no more, which is a shame

Our Ethical Network is now just a LinkedIn group