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Building Relationships through the Rugby Business Network

The Rugby Business Network is run out of London, and it’s big in the countries where rugby’s popular. It is a networking organization, but one in the European fashion, with less emphasis on hard business networking and more on simply getting to know people. The Rugby Business Network is slowly gaining traction here in the U.S., and Penn Mutual is pleased to participate.

I personally got involved with the Rugby Business Network through the New York chapter. When Penn Mutual became the sponsor of the Penn Mutual Collegiate Rugby Championship last year, it struck me that Penn Mutual also needed to become more involved in the Rugby Business Network, so I reached out to them anew.

The New York chapter, run by Peter Forsman, is very active, but they always struggle to find places to meet. Susan Cooper offered space at her agency, Empire Wealth Strategies, here in New York. The office floor plan is totally open so it’s very conducive to meetings. The first meeting we hosted back in April was a big success, with well over 100 people from all different walks of life – Millennials, college students, but also older professionals. The format of the meeting was to bring in a person from the rugby world to speak, followed by a closing presentation on a business topic. It is, after all, the Rugby Business Network. Susan welcomed everybody. Stephen Lewis, Director of Rugby and Coach with Old Blue RFC, spoke and then I discussed the business applications of the Penn Mutual sponsorship.

From there, the movement has grown organically to Boston, Philadelphia and Chicago — all with Penn Mutual lending support along the way. Jennie Reid, who attended the meeting in New York, had just moved back from New Zealand to Boston. She runs an organization called Positively Rugby. There wasn’t a Rugby Business Network chapter in Boston, but she was interested in getting one started. We put her in touch with John Laurito, managing partner at Concord Wealth Management, Penn Mutual’s Boston agency. They worked together with Luke Messecar, who works for me, to use Facebook to reach out to people in Boston who were interested in rugby. Oddly enough – this is how the networking process works – John bumped into someone who owns several bars and also happens to play rugby. He offered to sponsor several rugby get-togethers. There were somewhere in the vicinity of about 50 people at the first networking meeting in Boston.

Jim Meehan of 1847Financial, with his team of Lisa Davis and Gina Iovanisci, hosted the first Philadelphia RBN meeting at the Union League Club. Key note speakers were Jim Meehan and John McNichol, President & CEO of the Pennsylvania Convention Center, and President of Rugby PA. 200 Rugby fans attended this inaugural event and it was a great success.

Here are some of the things we’ve learned from past meetings with the Rugby Business Network:

Best Practices for Planning a Rugby Business Network Get-Together

Form a committee made up of people that are in the rugby community. That’s been the critical success factor in Boston, Philadelphia, New York and Chicago. This is first and foremost about becoming a connecting point for the local rugby community. The local rugby clubs tend to have their own meetings, but there usually isn’t a place where everyone who has an affinity for rugby can get together.

Charge your committee to bring people. Everybody on the committee should be out there, inviting at least ten people to the meeting. It’s not just about getting people to have a beer; it’s about getting the community engaged.

Identify potential rugby speakers, and use your committee connections to invite them. This is a big draw for the get-togethers. People want to know what’s going on in rugby, both in the U.S. and internationally.

Leverage Facebook and other social media for attracting attendees. Luke Messecar has had great success using Facebook to reach out to people who mention something about rugby in their posts. If they are talking about the rugby community online, invite them to an in-person rugby community.

Take your time and let it build slowly. This is about relationships, and those take a while to develop. This is a process, not a destination.

Make it rare. There is a temptation to do these meetings every month. Don’t. Less is more. The people who left the first New York meeting were very excited; our follow-up meeting came six months later with Eileen McDonnell, the Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer of Penn Mutual, as the business speaker for the evening. Talk about high impact.

Bring people in as partners. Tell people you really need their help. We asked Susan Cooper for her help, and she came through. We invited Jim Meehan from 1847Financial to the first meeting, and he and his team were so charged up by what they saw in New York that they put together a top-shelf meeting in Philadelphia. Ask people to take things on.

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