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R eal connections
K oreans meet non - K oreans at B u siness N et w ork K orea Story by Louis Oh
I
t all started in a typical classroom of a Gangnam hagwon. The gathering was meant to be a networking event, but to the handful of people still there it was pretty clear that the energy in the room was dying. Their attempt to connect with one another while promoting themselves was a dud. The organizer, the original founder of Business Network Korea, had higher hopes, but needed help. He looked to Justin McLeod and Liam Lusk, the two men from World Markets, a London-based marketing startup that had been the primary backer of the fledging event at the time. “Take this over,” he said. “You guys could really do it justice.” And they did. Since taking over BNK in July 2013, the two men have turned a group of five guys in a hagwon classroom into a crowd of 70 to 80 current and prospective businesspeo-
52 www.groovekorea.com / November 2014
ple engaging in a bimonthly gathering of speed-networking and panel Q&As taking place in conference rooms and pubs. In the
past year, active membership has reached a regular 100+ professionals, with its total number of members hitting nearly 800.
McLeod and Lusk wanted Business Network Korea to be different from other networking events; they didn’t want it to be midweek or expensive. For them it had to be accessible and, most importantly, something that people could actually benefit from. “A lot of the networking events in town charge you about 50,000 or 60,000 won to go through the door, and you don’t get anything given to you,” says McLeod. “You just basically stand with some executives, rub shoulders, have a glass of wine and a stale shrimp biscuit, and then you leave. You might have 10 business cards by the end of the night but you’re never going to do business with these guys.” BNK, on the other hand, makes sure you get to connect with people and really learn something. Running two half-hour rounds of speed-networking and presenting either a guest speaker or a panel, the event cur-