Meet&Deal vol9 Birthday Edition is behind us and I already know that it was the best decision to combine work with a birthday celebration. Not only because when you do relationship business, most of your work contacts also turn into personal ones, but also because when things have a deeper meaning, people notice it and it will be successful. How was it at Villa Kajetánka for vol9? And how much did we raise for a good cause?
The bar is raised again
After the tour of the Czech Republic, we returned to the capital with the most nourishing networking. When you organize events, each subsequent event needs to be better, have something extra, or simply move forward. And the more of these things you get into an event, the better for everyone. Especially for you as an organizer.
With Meet&Deal, I always pay very close attention to the selection of venues. They underscore the energy of the entire event and it proved again that this choice was right. I can’t even count how many times someone told me during the evening that I had chosen a great venue and that I’m really good at it.
Over 150 people gathered at Villa Kajetánka, more than a third of them from e-commerce, complemented by investors, CEOs of companies and other successful people from business in the Czech Republic and Slovakia. And the composition of the participants is another piece in the puzzle that has pushed it all forward.
“This Meet&Deal was an extremely good event. I don’t know if it was because of the birthday or if it’s a gradual development – since I haven’t been to any for a long time – but hats off. This is a completely different event compared to the first three, let’s say. Great that you’ve scaled it up and fine-tuned it,” says Radovan Andrej Grežo, CEO of Somebody&Somebody.
The ninth event in a row and there’s always someone who comes for the first time: “It was my first event and I believe it won’t be the last. For me, everything was perfect. Great people, relaxed atmosphere, nice space, luxurious catering. But I can imagine that if I was a complete beginner, didn’t know anyone, I would appreciate a little push to get to know someone. If such things were on the program and I just didn’t notice them because I was constantly chatting with someone, then the feedback would of course be irrelevant. I saw a lot of familiar faces after a long time, so it was great,” says Tomáš Čech, founder of Angry Beards.
There were plenty of pushes, from ever-present connectors to 1-on-1 rock-paper-scissors, the “pink” challenge to the one-time camera networking mail.
Great drinks, beer and non-alcoholic beverages were perfectly complemented by grilled catering or the option to make your own Neapolitan pizza. There’s not much else to add to that. Maybe just a sausage.
No panel discussion, but…
We didn’t hold a panel discussion this time. But we added a new networking activity. We bought a disposable analog camera, came up with 15 “tasks” and sent people on a mission with the content team! BUZZOONS captured it all, so you can soon check out the result on our Instagram. I’m curious about it myself.
In addition, the traditional 1-on-1 rock-paper-scissors tournament with a grand finale took place or the rose task. The entire atmosphere was underpinned by sets from three DJs or late-night sausage roasting. By the way, also a great networking activity.
Partners in the right place
I’m also increasingly realizing that it’s almost impossible to organize events without partners. And what is even more important in this case is the selection of partners. Because at Meet&Deal, partners get involved in the program. Thanks to the general partner Balíkovna for going with us on this. In addition to more than 50 e-commerce companies, we also provided sausages and draft Pilsner with Milan Šmíd. They also prepared a special offer for the e-commerce people and presented it there.
Of course, it’s not just about one partner. Thanks to all the others as well. Whether it’s event partners – Alkohol.cz, Fotonaut, Your pizza therapy and Phoenicoflos. Or media partners NetworkingAkce.cz, Fajn Radio and SoMe partners Buzzoons, who took care of the content all day, or SídloFirmyPraha5.cz, with whom we have newly established cooperation. And I look forward to what else awaits us!
Buying followers for a good cause
I also decided to buy followers – haha – I probably shouldn’t say that, right? But that’s really how it was, it just had a slightly different reach. For every new follower that was added to my Instagram by 10pm, I sent 10 CZK to Milinka.
For Milinka, as in Pilsen, we again collected in cooperation with the Kubova English Foundation. The idea is good, the processing is also good and what about the people? A lot of unnecessary hate on the networks, but what can you do. That’s just the way it is when you want to do good things.
We helped Milinka in two waves this time. In the first case, before the event, we auctioned a total of 4 tickets for 19,000 CZK, and in the second, directly at the event, where we raised over 67,000 CZK thanks to the generous tombola. In total, we raised about 450,000 CZK for a good cause at the Meet&Deal events.
Ready for the Christmas Edition?
Meet&Deal vol9 Birthday Edition was a blast. The team surprised me with a Meet&Deal logo cake, which I eagerly dug into. And I celebrated my 30th birthday together with the other participants until the early hours of the morning.
And what’s next? We are gradually preparing the Xmas Edition, which will take place on 12/11 and we will enjoy the most nourishing Christmas party together. Until then, I will focus mainly on BezCyklení – a community of founders, where I was given the task of developing the Prague branch, its development and care for the members and organizing regular meetups for them.
Want to go to the Meet&Deal Xmas Edition? Join the waiting list on the website mitdyl.cz and see what happens.
