Biznik Blog

Colleen Wainwright, Heather Parlato ( a couple of our LA Biznik Ambassadors – booyah) and a few other guest hosts have been hosting a monthly Biznik meet and greet mixer for like, a hundred years in LA.
Which is pretty cool. Colleen moved to LA and brought some of the touchy-feely northwest stuff with her. Hopefully she doesn’t get put in jail for it, because, we at Biznik think what she is doing is awesome. And hope that she keeps the ball rolling there.

Well, what exactly is she doing? Stuff like this:

Just think how easy that is, you could do it too!

Here are some of the comments from the event:

EXCELLENT event, Colleen. THANK YOU for the value-added elements. I’m inspired! – Bonnie Gillespie

This was the best Biznik mixer I’ve been to yet! – Thomas Smith

Put 1/12/11 down as the best of Biznik! Loved the open, sharing element. What a great way to start the New Year! – Arnette Travis

Biznik events are a great way to ensure that you are going to network with like-minded solo business owners, just like you, and not schmarmy sales pitches which will leave you feeling slimed.

On a recent trip to the Bay Area, I was fortunate enough to spend time (work + play) at NextSpace. We started to see quickly that there were similar approaches to how Biznik and NextSpace create community.

• Both companies recognize that some things suck.

• We both work to keep our community free of spamming and MLMs.

• The 95/5 Rule applies in both places.

• And NextSpace and Biznik both provide an end to isolation.

The 100th monkey theory is about how an idea or action that one tribe of monkeys generates paranormally spreads across time and space to other tribes of monkeys. Nestled in the heart of San Francisco, at 2nd and Market, NextSpace is a coworking space dedicated to community and a cool work space.

Coined in 1999, coworking spaces are the way of the future. These are communities supporting indie business folks, events which support small business, and collaboration amongst members (and other coworking spaces).

Check out this quick and dirty introduction to Jeremy Neuner and his new space in San Francisco. We wish them every bit of luck as they build their community:

NextSpace San Francisco from Matt Lawrence on Vimeo. With it’s doors recently opened in early June 2010, Jeremy Neuner shows Biznik Community Manager around the new space.

I wish I conducted experiments. For some reason I forgot to mention that I thought experiments were cool to my high school counselor. I did mention I liked to watch movies and tell other people what was interesting about them, and I wanted to make them myself. So I was introduced to Mark Ferguson at Glenbrook South High School, and years later graduated with a documentary film degree from Columbia College Chicago.

If I could do it all over again, would I do it differently? Would it even be possible? Well, that would be one helluvan experiment itself.

Can you can be two places at once? Could you could be at the Hotel 1000 tonight listening to Warren Etheredge and Rom Brafman wax philisophic, and somewhere else at the same time?

The experiments in CLICK are great. There are lots of them. One is a great big auditorium of students engaged in an experiment that they had no idea they are participating in (enter me with big goggles with an under lit green hue behind a two way mirror–I would love it). All to find out how and why people click. The results are stunning.

In a way, Biznik is an experiment. We create a profile, engage in dialogue, share personal information with strangers, and eventually hope to learn something about ourselves and our world at the end of the day.

Lots of you know amazing Seattle chef Tiberio Simone, who has catered the food at virtually all of the large Biznik events such as BizJam and all of our annual holiday parties. Or you’ve met him at other events as that guy handing out chocolates. More recently he’s teamed up with photographer Matt Freedman to create the La Figa Project, in which Tiberio’s passion for food and beauty have found their ultimate expression. Check this out. If you don’t think passion and art and business mix, you haven’t met Tiberio and Matt! Nice work, you guys (and girls).

Last night Biznik reached a major milestone: we got Paul Renzi to join us. Paul is a social entrepreneur from Hockessin, Delaware, and when he joined Biznik last night around 6:30pm, he became the 25,000th member of this community of extraordinary entrepreneurs.

“My goal is to increase the ability of shared-interest groups to leverage themselves through the creation of online communities,” says Paul. “I am currently designing a community called bizearthcommunity.com (site not built yet) — a site designed to help the entrepreneurial community connect and find funding, while also participating in shared philanthropic objectives. I have acquired seed funding, but I am still in need of some solid growth funding.”

It’s so fitting that a community-builder is our 25,000th member. I’m going to do everything I can to help him succeed, and I know you will, too. Check out the online community builders network he’s building: http://entrepreneurshipnation.ning.com. Welcome to Biznik, Paul!