Local Review: Corporate Alliance

• Posted by Steve Spencer

Article posted on Nov 01

  Many of you here in the valley have probably heard of Corporate Alliance.  But what you may or may not be aware of is that they are in the process of opening a Salt Lake chapter (they have traditionally been down in Utah County.)  I have heard good things about CA, so I jumped on board this opportunity and signed up my company.  Although the chapter official opens in January, there was a big kickoff party earlier this week for the first 100 companies to join the new chapter (I guess Utah County has around 1600 companies in that chapter!)

Well, it was my first event with CA, so I wanted to let you know what I think… bearing in mind of course, that this was a “kickoff” event, and my first experience with them, so it may or may not be indicative of the norm.

Well, I have to say that CA puts on one heck of an event.  There were a lot of people there, everything was very professionally done, and well organized.  The mix of companies was everything from small to huge, and a huge slice of industries from banking to marketing, to sports teams, accounting, and darn near anything else you can think of.

CA was very clear that their goal was networking.  They intended to ge good people and good companies together to meet each other.  I have to say they do very well at facilitating that goal.  They do more than just get everyone in the same room… as soon as you walk in the door they handed us a sheet of paper listing all of the companies in attendance.  The goal was to get a signature from someone from as many of the companies as possible.  The exercise really broke down barriers and pushed people to interract more than they would have otherwise.

Then, at our individual tables, they did “speed introductions.”  Everyone had two minutes… during the first minute you needed to share a story about holiday traditions in your family.  Then the second minute you told about our company.  It was a great way to really get to know the people you were sitting with.

Whenever reviewing local groups and events, I feel it is important to point out that there is an element beyond good/bad, that makes an event stellar or ho-hum depending on your specific needs.  As such, I would have to say that if networking is only one of the values you like to get from an event, and you also really want to learn something from a speaker or presentation, then this event might leave you feeling a bit like you had eaten dessert, but skipped the meal, and went away feeling a bit unfulfilled.  If however, networking with an amazing cross-section of various industries, and various sized companies in an event that really makes networking fun and open is what you are looking for, then CA really hit one out of the park.

• Posted in Local Review