Face to Face in action at the 1 November Horeca meeting. Photo courtesy of Face to Face.
While it has been more than a year since the last Made in Kazan lecture series sponsored by the City of Kazan was held, an unlikely offshoot of that program has been rapidly spreading and developing.
What started as a small experiment in social networking amongst friends in Kazan?s business community in May 2011 has developed into a full-fledged networking event that has seen its reach expand out of Tatarstan?s capital to other cities within the republic and Russia.
Face to Face ? a social networking platform for Kazan?s business community ? was founded more than a year and a half ago by a group of four entrepreneurs who met during Made in Kazan?s second lecture series and were struck by the fact that there were so many like-minded people in the city that they simply did not know.
?We thought it was great, how many active people there were, who were interested in making the city better,? explained Face to Face founder Aleksandr Chesnokov to The Kazan Herald in October 2011. ?We wanted to meet them.? As the platform has grown, Chesnokov ? who is also head of the Tatarstan Union of Young Entrepreneurs ? has become its leading spokesman and organizer.
The unique draw appeal of Face to Face is its speed-datingesque format. Each participant is given a two-minute opportunity to speak individually with each and every participant and exchange contact information. From the very beginning, participants have been required to bring business cards with them.
The first Face to Face meeting held that spring and was a modest affair, with some 30 people turning out. Since then, however, the gatherings have been steadily growing in size, bringing in more participants and an array of corporate sponsors. The third meeting in October 2011 already had 52 participants from a wide cross-section of Kazan?s business community. In addition to an array of small businesses, there were also some larger ones represented, including ProGorod Kazan, the Bank of Kazan, and TatFondBank.
Since then, Face to Face meetings regularly see anywhere from 70 to 100 participants.
As Face to Face gained momentum, the number of educational components and coffee breaks in the meetings? agenda grew, and the meetings began to be held in more and more prestigious locations, most notably in federal technoparks such as Kazan IT-Park, Technopark Idea and Khimgrad.
Regional expansion began on 27 April, when Face to Face meetings number 9 and 10 were held simultaneously in Kazan and Naberezhnye Chelny. Since then, meetings, which happen roughly every fortnight, have also been held in Samara, Ulyanovsk, and Yelabuga. On 28 November, Face to Face will hold a meeting for entrepreneurs in Cheboksary.
Recently, Face to Face has focused on creating industry-specific meetings, which have been praised as being even more successful at creating successful networking connections.
On 1 October, an event at Khimgrad was focused on manufacturing companies. A Horeca (Hotel, Restaurant, and Caf?) industry meeting was held in Grand Hotel Kazan on 1 November. Just last week, a meeting dedicated to all things franchise-related was held in Kazan IT-Park.
Up to date information about future Face to Face events can be found at the platform?s website, face-face.ru
Source: http://kazanherald.com/2012/11/26/social-networking-club-resonates-in-kazan-business-community/
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