Naples hosts networking events for the Finger Lakes

By Angela Rischpater

Are you a small business owner, entrepreneur, business leader, or aspiring to be one?  Are you limited in your networking due to your social interactions, geographical location, or digital presence?  Join the club.  Western Finger Lakes Networking is an opportunity for anyone in the Western Finger Lakes area to meet with others in-person to share ideas, be inspired, and grow their networks.  We host bi-monthly speaker-focused events to promote business growth with experts sharing tips on specific topics that will help you at any stage of your business development or expansion.

The origins of this networking group are derived from the desire to develop inspiration and support for anyone who had a nagging idea for a business but didn’t know how to get started, and for connecting entrepreneurs who had already taken their first steps, or 1,000 steps, with the benefit of building meaningful connections.  We all have something of benefit to share and when we collaborate our growth potential is far greater than on our own. There are many networking opportunities in the greater Rochester area but not in the Finger Lakes area despite the strong presence of the small businesses and entrepreneurial spirit that are the make-up of our small communities.

Just take a look at these numbers from a recent blog post in Apollo Technical on the benefits of in-person networking:

“Building stronger, more meaningful business relationships (85%)
Better ability to read body language and facial expressions (77%)
Ability to bond with co-workers/clients and more social interaction (75%)
Allows for more complex strategic thinking (49%)
Better environment for tough, timely decision-making (44%)
Less opportunity for unnecessary distractions (40%)
Leads to higher-quality decision making (39%)
Easier to focus (38%)
Fewer disruptions and delays (23%)”

The Naples Valley boasts a beauty unrivaled and is a nice example of the entrepreneurial spirit and the success provided by a supportive community.  Through the development of the networking events, recruiting speakers has been much easier than I expected since all of them, from Rochester to Buffalo and in between, have expressed the same exact words to me, “Absolutely, I love Naples.”   Naples, we may be a small community but we have something very special that makes people from all around us take notice.  Western FLX Networking is an endeavor to unite the visionaries from all around our valley in one place in an effort to advance the success stories and develop further possibilities for anyone interested in participating.

The first Networking dinner is June 3rd from 7-9pm at Hollerhorn Distilling with speaker Kristen Fragnoli, in collaboration with FLX Women.  You will see more on upcoming events by following this link  WFLX Networking on FB.