prepare your elevator pitch

on the 23rd March 2022 at the royal johannesburg and Kensington golf club, johannesburg, the Sapcc and Business ireland Sa (BiSa) co-hosted a Speed networking event.

this annual event on the Sapcc events’ calendar is always a firm favourite amongst our members where participants get to directly network and promote their businesses at speed. this edition saw a return to a inperson event following last year’s online version.

the event was well attended with approximately 45 participants. Sapcc director, tony de gouveia welcomed everyone on behalf of the Sapcc and introduced his cohost Mark peters.

the facilitator, Mark peters gave some valuable tips and guidelines on networking and how to get the best out of the event. Speed networking is a meeting format designed to accelerate business contacts. the format of the event was fast paced and structured to allow participants to interact with each other for 5 minutes on a rotation basis. this was tightly controlled by tony and his bell. the event was fun, exciting and an effective way to make a lot of initial connections in a very different environment from the standard business networking meetings. the feedback from the participants was once again overwhelming and the organisers were encouraged to continue repeating the event in future.

thank you tony de gouveia and Mark peters. thank you to BiSa for collaborating with us on this event.

1. come well prepared 2. Set clear and concise goals and objectives 3. Be honest and show respect 4. Define your personal brand 5. prepare your elevator pitch 6. prepare questions for others 7. concentrate on the value you add; not what you do 8. take notes 9. follow up 10. reciprocate