I recently started attending meetings of the Long Island Metro Business Action (LIMBA), a group that convenes on one or two Friday mornings each month at 8 a.m. at the Courtyard Marriott Hotel in Ronkonkoma. Each event features a speaker on a topic of relevance to Long Island, and, in particular, it’s business community. Recent sessions have featured the Town Supervisors of Smithtown and Brookhaven, as well as experts on government reform, ADA compliant websites and environmental issues. An upcoming session in late July will feature the owner and publisher from Newsday.
At least as important as the speaker and topic, if not more so, is the audience. Each meeting draws a varied representation of business people from a variety of disciplines – those you might expect, including bankers, accountants, lawyers and financial advisors – and some less likely suspects for a business networking group, including a social worker, professional singer, wedding officiant, and worker co-op advocate. At each meeting I have attended, I have learned something new, different and useful from the featured speaker as well as from the person I sit next to.
The meetings are friendly, informal, unpretentious, open to all, and feature coffee and a croissant, all for a fee of $25, payable in advance on the website or at the door.
I have always maintained that business networking is not just about making money. It is also about expanding our horizons, picking up new ideas, and creating productive relationships. For me, LIMBA has provided all of those opportunities. If interested, you can check out upcoming events at www.limba.net.
