New Forms of Networking Actually Make Office Meetings Fun

Boring office meetings might soon be a thing of the past. 

I was watching the Today show recently and they were discussing a new trend taking place across corporate America. I’m sure if you work for a company, you’ve networked with co-workers or clients at a nice restaurant for dinner or lunch, right? Well, in the segment on the Today show, many people were choosing to network in ways we wouldn’t think of doing in the past. Some of these new forms of networking seemed pretty cool.

One of these forms was taking clients out to an axe bar, which has been increasing in popularity over the years. In our area, a new axe bar recently opened up in Rhode Island inside R1 Indoor Karting, and about a month ago, Mass Axes put up an Instagram post teasing a potential location in downtown New Bedford.

Another new networking trend was bringing co-workers and clients to a fitness class. Chelsea Kocis, a former Wall Street worker, developed a fitness boutique called Swerve, in New York City, after she felt the desire to go on different types of meetings throughout her career. I can see how people who work in offices can get bored from going to meetings and constantly doing the same types of activities over and over. It also can get a little fattening if you’re constantly going out to steakhouses. According to Today, these types of fitness boutiques have increased in business from these new type of work outings.

On the show, it also showed a survey from LinkedIn and it said 51 percent of people prefer to be active when networking and 62 percent of people say it feels less forced.

Have you or any of your co-workers ever attended an outing such as these? If so, let us know how the experience was by commenting on this story on our Facebook page.