Networking at MOO Boston

MOO teamed up with Design Museum Boston, a network of local designers, for our very first networking event this month (the start of many, we hope!) in our brand new Boston office. Although the feature attraction was an expert design panel organized by Design Museum Boston, we still wanted to find a few ways to introduce ourselves to our new community (as well as help introduce them to each other!). And what better way to do that than to let them see a few of our products in action?

We thought up a handful of crafty uses, from icebreaker stickers to allowing people to pre-order custom Business Cards for the event – all in the name of better networking. Here are a few ways we made sure people knew what MOO was all about (and ideas for what you could do with MOO at your own networking event!)

We decided to stray from the usual name tags and use our own sticker design to help spark conversations beyond the initial, “hello.” Our colorful rectangle stickers made the perfect platform – we had guests fill in blank statements like “Hello, my favorite word is _______” and “Hello, ask me about the time I _______.” And stick them to their tops, making them act as a built-in conversation topics. Guests would be able to use these fun facts as a jumping off point for a larger conversation, making it easier to approach someone totally new.

With over 200 guests, we knew there needed to be an organized coat check. So far MiniCards have been great for solving little logistical issues - in this case, we used them as coat check tickets. We printed two of each number, and used a hole punch so that one ticket could go on a coat hanger (along with the appropriate coat!), while the other could go safely in the guest’s pocket. Another idea – if it’s appropriate for your event – is to use MiniCards to print Wifi passwords in case your guests want to connect to the web while they’re there.

As you may have guessed, most of our attendees lived and worked in – surprise! – Boston. But we still thought we’d gather some regional info, as well as what industries they’re a part of, to help get conversations started among our guests. We used MOO stickers to map out the results and encourage people to talk about where and why they do what they do.

A big part of working at MOO is all the snacks! So we thought we’d give our guests the full experience with a bunch of delicious hors d’oeuvres from local Boston-based Bee’s Knees. From mac and cheese quiches to buffalo chicken skewers, we used our Luxe Postcards as placards to inform our attendees which delicious treat was on each platter.  Yum!

It’s always nice to have a little reminder of where you met someone – that’s why we offered a free set of custom Design Boston Business Cards for people to order in advance and pick up at the event. Each set came with a note that read, “We met at Design Boston.” Of course, not everyone has the ability to print whole free sets of business cards - an easy alternative is to use Stickerbooks to make custom Stickers they can stick to their own business cards at the event.

Lots of thanks to Design Boston, Wolf Greenfield, and Harpoon Brewery for working with us and helping us put on our first big event – if you want to know more about how it went, read our blog post here. And if you have any of your own networking tips, feel free to chat us up on Twitter or Facebook.  

Written on:

06 Nov 2014

Categories:

Business Card Ideas, Printfinity, Postcard Ideas, Luxe Ideas