We recently helped New Hampshire Business for Social Responsibility (NHBSR) start off its Spring Conference with a focused networking session. After welcoming remarks by the conference hosts, Beth Tener facilitated a one-hour session to generate new connections by creating ways for people to have meaningful conversations in small groups. The room of about 170 people were invited to gather into groups of four. Each person was asked to share a story of where they have seen business social responsibility done well, i.e., a practice, strategy or initiative that generated postive benefits to stakeholders. Following that conversation, they were asked to share their “learning edge” in this area, i.e., a challenge they need to address, an emerging area of interest, an innovation they want to pursue.

After 20 minutes, people were invited to stand up and find a new group of four people, with musical accompaniment to liven things up (the Latin horns of Grazing in the Grass by Hugh Masekela.) At the new table, each person shared highlights of their previous conversation and discussed good practices and their learning edge with a new table of people. The room had a lively buzz of conversation and business cards were exchanged left and right. We also encouraged people to introduce each other to their other contacts, in network weaving terms this is called “closing triangles.” For added incentive, each table had colorful paper triangles where people could write their name when they made an introduction. These were put in a big glass jar for a raffle at the end of the day, as a way to encourage networking throughout the day.