Are you an entrepreneur who is looking for networking opportunities in the 518?

As a recent transplant to the 518 and an entrepreneur in start-up mode I have been really challenging myself to find and attend worthwhile and interesting networking events in the 518.

My goals are to make local connections in the 518, learn about what is going on in the area and meet other like minded entrepreneurs.

Networking in the 518 isn’t always easy. There are some weeks where it is harder to find scheduled networking events on topics of interest. This was a great week! I found three events! First was an evening networking event hosted by the NY Capital Region chapter of the AMA, the second an early am networking event hosted by Capital Region women@work and the third was a Beer and Business event to meet the founders and companies participating in the current MBWE accelerator program with Ignite U.

Networking in the 518 at the American Marketing Association New York Capital Region- Executive Forum

The Tuesday evening networking event featured a presentation with the former CMO at Burger King, Russ Klein.

He talked about the challenges he faced when a new CEO was brought in after the one who hired him was let go…he talked about operational challenges, training, margins, introducing new products, media mix, interestingly he shared that local linear (it was the 2000’s) media played a huge role in gaining traction against the competition.

Russ talked a-lot about how great his BK marketing team was and how that helped them to innovate and launch many new marketing efforts including; whopper freakout, triple whopper, subservient chicken and the introduction of the “creepy” king.

I love it when a leader shares the credit for their success with the members of their team. Every successful leader should encourage and support their team-mates and ideally then they will all be cheerleaders for the success of each other!

The Triple Whopper story….

This was interesting, because as Russ told it, the Triple Whopper really wasn’t that big of a hit with consumers. Triple Whopper was also extra work for the franchisees. Franchisees had to work on a new process for the Triple because the bun needed to be reworked to support the three burgers….burger logistics!

After the introduction of the 3x Whopper the franchises reported back that they were pretty disappointed with the sales of the Triple Whopper…it made up only 2% of sales.

Unhappy that is, until….. they analyzed weekly sales data for the double Whopper. After the introduction of the Triple, the double Whopper sales increased 50%!!! Consumers thought a double Whopper sounded better when compared with a Triple!!!

I love it when marketers use data to increase sales, and ROI. #performancemarketing

Thursday morning I met with Nicole Snow of Darn Good Yarn.

Yes, Nicole was the speaker at the Women@work event the day before, but I had scheduled our coffee meeting over a month before.

I had a wonderful 1 : 1 chat with Nicole. It was great to share stories, experiences and ideas with a Founder and CEO that is doing amazing things and making an impact. While I was there, Nicole toured me around the DGY warehouse. It is 20k square feet! I got a chance to see (and touch!) some of the beautiful yarn & hear about the process of developing The Good Sol sari wrap skirts. I am grateful to Nicole for taking time out of her busy day and meeting with me. #thankful

Nicole is an inspiring human, she is thoughtful and smart and she tells it like it is!

What do you get when you put together axe throwing, juice cleanses, ice pops, and tax resolution in Troy, NY?

Check out my other blog postings about community and MIH in the 518 here.