No one creates jobs in a vacuum
No one creates jobs in a vacuum.
To create new jobs, people need to connect to:
- customers
- people at suppliers and service providers
- people who help them think of the new ideas that generate new value that create more demand that lead to new jobs
- people who can fill those jobs
Innovation works best when people connect with people outside their usual network, people who aren’t exactly like them. That makes it easier to put together pieces of seemingly unrelated ideas to generate a new idea.
Your town has different kinds of people. You have different businesses. You have people with differing ideas.
When you bring them together and help them connect, you’re spurring innovation and generating future jobs.
How can you do that, when you’re already overwhelmed with too many things to do? Add more deliberate networking to things you’re already doing.
Do you have a conference or workshop coming up? Add networking.
Take inspiration from this speed business networking at an economic development symposium in Norfolk County, Ontario. (Do NOT miss the hilarious “wanted poster” they sent out!) Clark Hoskin told me that it led to at least a couple of people finding jobs or new employees and several firms started to do more business with each other.
Do you hold a business fair? Add networking.
Check out how a business fair in an empty building created two new businesses. Bringing out hidden businesses created even more new opportunities. This is the event in the photo courtesy of Michele Robles, above.
Adding networking is not just about people talking to each other. It’s about building the connections that can create new jobs.