Thought I was going to make it, but I have a concert to go to that I forgot my friend got tickets to. Have fun and I'll see ya when I get back from Europe. I leave a week from Tuesday! WHEE! :)

Feel free to extract whatever 20 words there are most meaningful. I'm apparently terrible at being concise. :O

Biznik offers me a legitimate networking community...emphasis on the word community. I feel I have this huge support group now, whereas prior to Biznik, I often felt alone in trying to build my business and in facing challenges that are unique to indies like us. I love that everyone here "gets" it and that we all truly want to help one another.

I'm afraid I won't make it, so I'm cancelling my RSVP for now. If I can come, I'll call you on the way. :)

I was just reading Mikelann's post and I do think that members should have to pay at least something to participate in Biznik...at least after like an initial grace period (60 days trial maybe?). I am currently a non-paying Biznik member, but being on my 2nd month, I definitely see the value of the community and plan to sign up for a paid membership soon. However, I do find it a bit odd that no solicitations to upgrade my membership have come my way via email or something. It's frankly unclear to me what the different membership levels even offer, or why I should be encouraged to upgrade.

I think that Biznik could do more to promote the paid memberships if making money is a priority. Also, it seems like having ongoing monthly payments from members as a revenue source is a lot easier to manage administratively than charging for every event. I'd rather pay a set monthly rate of $10-20 and go to as many free events as I want than have to worry about paying $5 online for every happy hour or lunch chat I RSVP for.

If people are willing to pay $10 per month to watch unlimited movies, I can't see why they wouldn't pay $10 for unlimited networking opportunities. :)

Hillarious...I do this all the time out of pure boredom...and for fear that I might look too suicidal in any number of my pics. :P

Leif - I'm glad to hear your out of pocket expenses were covered, and I didn't think your plug for donations was annoying or awkward at all. I was happy to donate money at the end of the event because I felt I got a lot of value out of it, and I wanted to express that monetarily.

Ultimately, I think Biznik, if it is truly about indie networking, should continue to offer a decent number of free events, because to me, networking is about connecting with others for potential future business, not creating instant clients out of people we may never have even met. However, I really liked Karrie's last post about having Free Social Events, then Low Cost Introductory Events and then graduating members into being able to promote their Mid To High cost seminars, training, etc., after the community has sort of endorsed that person's field expertise. I would be way more likely to sign up for a pay event where someone had already somewhat proven their presentation value.

Is it ok if I come a bit late? I do have a conflict that night. :( I can skate out of the other thing early though to be there at like 6:30 or 7.

I REALLY like Karrie's idea.

From what I understand, the basic concept of Biznik is to provide genuine business networking opportunities for Indies, not act as a direct income resource for those choosing to host events. While I do understand some people may want to recover their actual out of pocket costs like paper, food, etc. for certain types of events, I don't particularly agree with the fee-based model where the obvious objective of the host is to make a profit off the event, or in essence turn the attendees into insta-clients. I have never attended a fee-based event, not because I wouldn't be willing to pay for a seminar that seemed of significant value, but because it is rarely obvious what dollar value an event should be worth based on just the description alone. Some of the events I've attended have ended up being a repeat of a lot of information I already knew, so in those cases, had I paid in advance, I'd have been disappointed. However, when I've been to free events where I've gotten a taste of what the host has to offer (even if it wasn't new info to me), it has made me much more inclined to a) give them my own future business, or b) refer others to them who might be in need of their services.

Bottom line, networking is not the same thing as selling, or at least I don't see it as such. It's building relationships which we hope will foster our success in the bigger, long-term picture, whether directly and indirectly. Sharing my knowledge, services, space, energy and support with other people in the same situation as me is simply, in my mind, an investment into my business' future, and my own karmic standing. Karma is more useful than money after all. ;)

Oh, and as far as no-shows. It is true that sometimes I RSVP to reserve a space for an event I really want to attend. However, since many of the events start at like 5 or 6pm, often I have last minute clients who have to take precedence and I'll end up having to cancel the morning of or the day before. I always (except when I absolutely cannot get to a computer - I do work on people, not on computers after all) cancel my RSVP, but it's impossible to know always what my schedule is going to look like until like the day before. Sadly, being a non-9 to 5er puts me a disadvantage for attending as many events as I would really like to. Them's the breaks though. Not complaining - I love my work, and therefore embrace the chaos of accommodating others.

IMO, if we weren't in Seattle, there would be a LOT fewer no-shows to events. I'd be willing to bet money on it actually. It's the culture here...people just don't respect other people's time and energy that much. The only way to change that is to change the culture. Good luck on that front (insert sarcasm here). Having rankings of who no-shows the most is fine with me, if that's what it has to come to. I'd hope the day advance reminder email to ask everyone to cancel their RSVP's if they can't make it would suffice though.

Another hot Virgo! I think I'm up to like 16 close friends now who are Virgos...all having entered my life in the past 5 years. What must this mean for a fiery girl like me? :O

Happy Birthday to you lovely woman. xoxo

I am curious what a virtual assistant is, and frankly, I've been needing an assistant lately, though a real one, not a virtual one...or so I think. ;)

My clients have taken over my schedule this evening, so I'm not going to be able to make it. I was really looking forward to coming. Hopefully someone can take my space.

Unfortunately, I will be about 20-30 minutes late for this event due to an earlier obligation. I look forward to meeting everyone though! :)

Hey Jessica,

Sorry I didn't make it today - I wanted too, but was on a roll trying to get my books in order so that when we meet in a few months, I'm all organized. ;)

Hope it went well!

I think I can make it - I'm going to try, but don't hurt me if I fail.

I am intrigued.

It seems like I know a billion real esate agents in this area, but I know not a SINGLE commercial agent. I was recently looking at getting information on retail spaces for lease or for sale and I could seriously not find anyone to help me. I called at least 12-15 brokerage firms and none of them had commercial agents or the ones that did never returned my calls. Perhaps you should look at branching out and creating a niche that could work more effectively for you. I worked in commercial real estate in Cincinnati, before I moved to Seattle. I was only dealing with smaller in-house (meaning I worked for the company who owned all the property I dealt with) developments and leases, but I made GREAT money and that was in a much smaller market. I have to imagine commercial realtors could do well here if there were any. If I didn't love hair so much, I would think of going back to that in a heartbeat. It's way less emotional than residential real estate and it's fun to help people get their businesses off the ground. I found it a very rewarding path...just something to consider.

I've been saying for years, "There is NO good tex-mex food in this city! I should open a restaurant". Lucky for you, I never got around to it. Now you have the market cornered. ;)

Looking forward to seeing your place. :)

Unfortunately, it looks like I'm going to be with clients for the bulk of the evening. :( If I get done early and have ANY energy left to stand, I'll drop by late.