Join the Club!

By: Beth Slagle

Dinner anyone?  How about a supper club?  The concept has been around for a long time, but is becoming more popular in various social circles where people are trying to have fun but also create the atmosphere for a productive evening as well.  Remember — time is money, right?  Weekly or monthly dinner clubs offer friends, peers and colleagues the chance to socialize, enjoy a dinner and perhaps do business as well. Forming a social relationship can be the best method for converting that person to a client.  Shared meals create an open, welcome atmosphere, creating the foundation for a personal relationship.

So how do you do it?  Start with a few friends, who each pledge to bring one or two friendly faces, perhaps a local realtor, banker or shopkeeper, and meet over a multicourse meal, giving everyone the time to socialize and get to know one another.  Whether you decide to have the dinners at one location or have a traveling supper club, the concept remains the same — food, socializing, networking.  If you’re running a supper club and only one individual hosts each event, it can get rather cost prohibitive, so vary it up among hosts, creating a traveling dinner club.  Or you can even try a pot luck dinner club where everyone brings something to munch.  You could even try a themed dinner club, a la Italian, Mexican, Chinese cuisine, whether at a particular restaurant or at home, where recipes can be shared.

Your imagination is your only limitation for what your supper club can be.  Remember, it’s all about fun.  Where there’s food and people, there’s bound to be laughs.  Creating the atmosphere where people can just relax will be your best bet to creating relationships that last well beyond a multi-course meal.

Beth Slagle, Attorney at Meyer, Unkovic & Scott, wannabe and sometimes entrepreneur and Founder & CEO of BizChicks.