The Value of Networking for Business

Chit U. Juan | February 6, 2017

Source: businessmirror.com.ph

People ask me why I’ve been attending summits and conferences ad libitum, maybe for about eight years now. More specifically, most of the meetings I attend are women’s summits or women-centric business conferences. And there are quite a few happening annually and biannually.

For the annual ones, I have attended the Global Summit of Women (GSW, www.globewomen.org) many times since 2008, and have enjoyed all of them in locations like Athens, Istanbul, Paris, Kuala Lumpur  and Vietnam, to name a few. The biggest draw besides the substantive content is founder Irene Natividad’s ability to take the attendees to private museums and places of historical interest for the welcome dinners. We were also hosted at the Palace in Malaysia and in an ancient waterworks cultural place in Athens. You could not go to these places if not for the summit. And I’m glad I did. Irene has been doing the GSW for over 25 years now.

After the summit, there usually are postevent tours; some took us to Rodos or Rhodes in Greece and to Bordeaux in France. And I’m looking forward to the postevent after the Tokyo GSW coming up in May. If you are interested to network at the summit and enjoy the visits to the stock exchange and other post-event tours, sign up now. The hotel rates are special and so are the rates, especially for non-governmental organizations.

It’s always good to see old friends from around the globe, even if it is just for once a year. It’s enough to keep the communication lines open—and with technology like Viber, WhatsApp and e-mail, you forget the distance and continually connect with these friends. People sometimes complain they have too many groups on Viber—I  don’t—it’s nice to keep your friends connected with you. You need not chat all the time, but knowing you have a friend from as far as Cairo or Rhodes or as near as Bali makes a lot of difference. You know you’re only a message away from someone in your network. Besides the Global Summit, there is the Women’s Forum in Deauville, which I totally enjoyed last year. Then there are the Apec and Asean meetings, too.

For those of you who have not been to one of these summits, check out the Tokyo event. It’s not very far from the Philippines, and the rates are too good to resist. Go to www.globewomen.org and register now. Take your friends along. Or your spouses. Men are most welcome to join, as the GSW features many male champions of diversity and inclusiveness.

Visit www.globewomen.org. I hope we get a pretty good number in our delegation, as Irene always makes each delegation stand up to be recognized. China, Vietnam, Spain and Mongolia always bring more than 50 women each year—no matter where the summit is held.

Let’s show the world that the Filipina can. Come along and listen to our Filipinas, like Doris Magsaysay-Ho of Magsaysay Lines, among the other global guests, such as heads of state and government officials, heads of global businesses and so much more.

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Chit U. Juan is president of ECHOstore Sustainable Lifestyle and the International Women’s Coffee Alliance-Philippines chapter. She is also chairman of the Asean Women Entrepreneurs Network. She is a social entrepreneur who has founded many start-ups, and may be reached through the ECHOsi Foundation (echosi.foundation@gmail.com or www.echosi.org).