The Year That Was and Will Be
The year is well and truly moving along. In the blinkof an eye we move from December to February! Over the holidays, I had many discussions with my husband and YTM Business Mentor, Leigh Powell on what YTM had achieved in 2017 and the direction we would take in 2018. All businesses need to review their strategies and the start of the year is a great time. Infact we have a "Goal Setting and Accountability" Workshop scheduled for the 13th February , if you need some guidence.
For YTM, we reflected on how we had been able to help businesses grow and gain confidence, what had been successful for us and what needed revisiting in the planning for the year ahead.
The tally for the year that was included-
- 11 events in Brighton, including two Dinners
- 5 months of events in Docklands, until the venue became unavailable
- Our inaugural events in Kew in start up phase
- Hosting in the Small Business Festival for the fourth year
- Three "Think Tank" programs across the year
- Mentoring clients developing growth strategies 1:1 with Leigh
- Facilitating a networking event for the second year for members of a Superannuation association
What did that actually mean for our Members and others? These opportunities enabled real conversations, stronger connections, learnings from insights and boosts in confidence and direction, not only of our YTM Members, but also others who seek more from networking events than a card swap and a transaction.
The speakers at our events had continued to provide inspiration, motivation and knowledge whilst sharing their experience and individual journeys, inspiring and enriching the networking experience, personally and professionally.
We discussed how important sharing time with like-minded others ground us. How through our events, business professionals have the chance to connect, pause, reflect and consider new perspectives and knowledge. They have time to focus on why we do what we do and how to make the most of what is available to us. Last year, our participants told us that they benefited from the personal and professional development in our constantly changing world.
Speakers such as Michelle Jelleff from START Foundation shared the problems and opportunities that they had faced, as did Jane Seymour, Eric Chan and Andre Baruch. These speakers, from different perspectives, shared 5 minute stories that had attendees having much deeper conversations than at traditional events, purely prompted by "what do you do?"
So what does YTM 2018 look like?
Well, we will continue to provide our different formats of events to keep life interesting. We will continue to help our attendees make connections, raise their profile, have conversations that help them uncover leads and opportunities, and be supported by the YTM community.
We will have three Dinner events, first for 2018 being the the 3rd Annual Dinner - the YTM Awards on 24th April, with speakers sharing thoughts on "Why Does it Matter".
We have introduced
- accountability calls to our Members on a monthy basis to support our members
- a Goal setting Strategy Workshop on 13th February, a benefit of YTM Membership
- and a great line up of speakers proposed for our events (if you would like to receive details of coming events you can sign up here)
- we will continue to grow our presence in Kew, providing an alternative networking style
- investigate licensing
- we will welcome opportunities to collaborate with others who understand that networking does generate leads and opportunites, through focus on relationships, education and enrichment
- "think tanks" program will kick off in March
- provide 1:1 and group "Lead Coaching" workshops
- increase Silo Breakers and Key note speaking presentation
- and, as always we will endeavour to make the most of the precious time that our participants invest with us.
If you are interested in working with YTM in 2018 to leverage our expertise and community, please contact us here.
