1st Fridayz™ is a 36-hour email networking event that takes place on the eFriday Forum listserv. 1st Fridayz™ begins on Friday, September 7th at 8 AM Eastern Time and goes until 8 PM Eastern Time on Saturday, September 8th. In addition to participating in lively discuss topics of interest to women business owners, professionals and executives. 1stFridayz™ networking events allows participants to get to know more about the products and services each offers.
1st Fridayz™ are designed to be a rich mix of conversations, one-on-one interviews, and panel discussions. And the beauty of an email event is that you can come and go and interact as you please. You are not attached to your computer keyboard unless you want to be.
Like previous 1st Fridayz™ the September event has a twist to it. The first 20 people to reply to this message will have the opportunity participate in a 10 minute "blog showcase" in our (pc friendly) online conference room. Your blog will also be added to the 100 Great Women Bloggers List we will be unveiling on the WE Magazine blog in September.
Since the showcase focus for September is blogging, we will ask you to show us your blog as well as answer so key questions such as why you started your blogs, what your goals are, your focus, target audience and what you enjoy most about blogging? We will also want to know what you find to be the most difficult part of starting/maintaining your blog as well as how you promote it. In essence, the September showcases will be mini-interviews.
Showcases will take place in the conference room and will scheduled between 12:30 and 1:30 pm, 4:30 and 5:30 pm, and 8:30 and 9:30 pm on Friday and 11:30 and 12:30 pm on Saturday (all Eastern Daylight Time). Times are on a first-come basis. Go here to convert the time in your part of the world:
www.timeanddate.com.
For those of you who are unable to join us in the conference room, you will be able to hear the conversations and participate via a teleconference bridge line. You will be able to showcase your blog even if you cannot attend in the room, because you will supply the URL of your blog, and we will follow along with you - while you are on the phone you can give a tour via your own computer.
Teresa Morrow of
Key Business Partners is the September Showcase Chair and will be coordinating the showcase times. Her email is keybusinesspartners (at) gmail.com. You may also send a message heidi (at) wecai.org with "SHOWCASE" in the body of the email and I will forward it to her.
And we have an educational component to our event. The theme for September is
"BLOGGING FOR BUSINESS" and five or six guest experts will be interviewed during our Conference Room Networking times. The experts we have lined up so far are Patsi Krakoff and Denise Wakeman aka The
Blog Squad, Liz Strauss of
Successful and Outstanding Blog(gers), Heidi Caswell of
Connect Simply, and two other "surprise guests!"
1st Fridayz™ is a free event. That’s right! There is no charge to attend and participate in these discussions. However, showcases are reserved for members of the
WECAI Network™. If you are not currently a member, you can sign up for free as a Basic member and give the
WECAI Network™ a try. And as a thank you for participating you will receive a directory with a complete list of every participant.
In addition to the networking directory which everyone who signs up will receive, there will be book and prize give-aways throughout the 36-hour event and even a few surprises. BTW, if you attended in the past, you don't have to do re-sign up, just fill out a networking profile before the event!
So if you have not attended a previous 1st Fridayz(tm), please go to
http://listserv.familynet.net/mailman/listinfo/wecai and register.
Because this is an email networking event you will receive the discussions, questions, answers and introductions via email to your inbox. I recommend you set your email at DIGEST, so you won't be inundated with messages. I also recommend you not use your primary email address if another one is available. This will help you separate your important business messages from the networking event.
One last thing, I also suggest you create a folder to put the messages in so you can check them when you have time and not feel overwhelmed by the amount of information that will be shared, and fully absorb all the information as well as reconnect with those women who attended.
On September 4th you will be asked to submit a "networking profile" introducing you to the group. Even if you have completed the profile from our previous event, please do so again. We are going to encourage participants to click on your links and get to know you. We will also be using the information you supply to create questions participants can answer and some will even include an opportunity to "W.I.N." some great prizes.
If you would like to donate a prize, let me know and I will include it in Future communications, in our next eMonday News as well as post it to our blogs, this one and
WE Magazine for Women Blog. This is a great way to gain extra visibility for your products and services.
THANKS! We look forward to networking with you and learning more about what you do and how we can help you do business on the web.
Heidi & Suzannah
Co-Founders - The
WECAI Network™
"Helping Women Do Business on and off the WEB"
