Review Of My First Meet-up For Entrepreneurs in Saigon
On Saturday 14th of November 2020, I had the opportunity to organize my first meet-up for entrepreneurs in Saigon! This article is the opportunity for me to share more details about my intentions with this event, what people thought about it and share what is coming next!
My only expectation was to gather a small group of people to have a discussion about our entrepreneur’s journey and daily challenges. I wasn’t targetting a specific kind of entrepreneurs nor any specific field.
My believes are that someone in IT can give great advise to another entrepreneur in retail and vice-versa. And also, that a young 6 month old entrepreneur can bring fresh inputs and useful value to a serial entrepreneur who has 10 years of experiences. We can learn from each other by shifting our own perspectives.
The goal was to open some general topics, see if anyone was interested in sharing some issues they are facing and what others had to say about it. I had prepared some ice-breakers and some questions to facilitate this meet-up between entrepreneurs.
One last thing about the preparation of this event: I organized it in 1920 Prohibition Bar. It was the opportunity for us to have a quiet space upstairs, with comfortable chairs and sofas in order to discuss. And then, after our conversations, we could move at the bar downstairs and enjoy their large selection of drinks and food and talk in smaller groups, more like in any networking events happening in HCMC at the moment.
As a result, 15 people showed up. Not just my friends, but a lot of people I’ve never met before who heard about my event. What a great news! I am also grateful that a mix of local entrepreneurs and foreigners came, with different activities and experiences.
We discussed during one hour and a half. From introducing ourselves to the group, to opening conversations about which book we recommend and entrepreneurs problems, we had a great conversation that everybody could be interested in and follow.
Some of the topics we covered:
– How to set up your prices when you are just starting,
– How to present your products or services better,
– We also discussed branding, value proposition, product development and sales.
What are the feedback I received?
The main thing was about benefits and results. While some entrepreneurs actually liked to have conversations with other like-minded people, some other would have prefer to even go deeper into some topics and learn even more.
Some entrepreneurs questionned the benefits someone could get from such type of events. For example, having a group conversation is alright with 15 people, but the day 40 people come, it’s going to be harder to listen to everyone and have a clear conversation.
What is my conclusion and what do I plan to do next?
After this first attempt, we can be sure of one thing: I confirmed that there is definitely an interest for such type of events among entrepreneurs of Saigon.
Now, what I want to do for the future is to focus on a meet-up format where people can learn something from this meet-up and exchange with the entrepreneurs who joined.
It would still start at 5PM and last until 6:30PM – 7PM.
I would invite a speaker who has a specific “expertise” in problems entrepreneurs may face. The idea is to learn from this person and open the discussion about this topic. For example, someone may come to introduce how they manage their team and explain how they achieve great results. After, people joining this talk, can ask questions to the speaker about management, his team, his company, they can also share more experiences or express an opinion as well.
This part could cover any topic that can be interested for entrepreneurs of all levels, cultures, fields, etc.
If you are interested in presenting to the group, please contact me! To view the list of events I’m going to host, please check my social medias.