Marys' Dinner Club Stories - A good reason not to host a dinner

My dinner clubs have always been a place for meeting new people, connecting, networking, making friends… And it still makes me so very happy every single time to say good bye to 10 people who’ve come mostly not knowing each other walk away as friends, having exchanged business cards, connecting on facebook, returning to other dinners….

Especially the Burmese dinner on May 19th had proven to be a perfect example of the power of connecting and networking. As described in my previous article, it was a ‘ladies night’ and saw the attendance of the very inspiring fire artist Alice in Flames, the CEO and founder of the event management agency BRILL events, dynamic, self-employed ladies of various nationalities and – the founders of the facebook group The Cottage Network, Terri Savva and Lena Lang Jamieson. The atmosphere was soo exciting and lively! The food was hot, the guest star was ‘hot’ and the guests were 'on fire' and full of ideas for ‘cottage networking’!

The Cottage network was only formed this April and has nowover 3.000 members. It sees itself as ‘a group for all so called "Cottage Industries" in Cyprus to join together to increase their presence on Facebook!’ http://www.facebook.com/groups/383706658336077/ At the time of the above mentioned dinner, Lena, originally from Sweden, living in Cyprus since 1986, had already announced their first ever ‘mingler’ on facebook to be held at Terri’s who had graciously agreed to open her home to everyone. It was agreed right there and then that we should all attend the event and I did not hesitate one second to forgo a dinner for this wonderful occasion.

Obviously I did start right away thinking about food I could bring to the ‘party’ and decided on homemade pita chips baked with herbs and a North African carrot dip made with a spice mix called Ras el Hanout. So Friday night was spent preparing suitable quantities for the mingler. The lovely hostesses were well prepared too with beautifully arranged finger food, a chocolate fountain and a ‘fruit tree’ and drinks. The event started at 5 and the turnout was estimated at about 150 guests. Various participants had set up tables showing their goods, demonstrating their services…. The atmosphere was simply fantastic with so many like-minded people meeting, exchanging ideas, finally putting a face to the ‘facebook name’…. I must admit I was quite flattered to find out how many people did know about me and my dinners. It was very inspiring to get so many people coming up to me beaming ‘So you are Mary from Mary’s Dinner Clubs’.

Like everyone I made many wonderful contacts, met some really great people and now have a list of very impressive, innovative people who will attend my dinners as guest speakers so I can help promote/support them and they can help make my dinners even more exciting. The true spirit of networking! Thank you again Lena and Terri for organizing this fabulous event – we’re all looking forward to the next one!

Meanwhile stay tuned for upcoming dinner themes to continue the connecting on a smaller scale over dinner. The next one, on Saturday June 9th will feature Pakistani food with curries, roti bread, chicken Masala and a traditional dessert. Contact me at maryanglbe@hotmail.com or 96 58 90 22 or sign up at http://www.facebook.com/events/344909708909278/

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