Times have changed, and the life of the businessman hasn’t gone unaffected. Today’s businessman is a busy as ever, juggling work responsibilities with family duties, and if he’s lucky a few precious hours for rest and relaxation. With a full understanding of this, a few chapters in New York, Texas, and California have begun offering a time-sensitive meeting during the workweek (see example schedule at the bottom of the page). We’ll examine some of the planning and preparation that goes into meeting today’s busy businessman.

After looking for a more effective method to reach out to the hardworking businessmen, we realized that scheduling and operating like a business meeting was the best way to attract someone during the business day.

Members involved in planning the meetings searched for a location to hold the meeting with the following qualities:
1. A private meeting room,
2. The ability to reserve a time slot consistently,
3. A way to quickly serve food without having to order and wait.

In Rochester, NY, this search resulted in holding the meeting at a Bennigan’s restaurant wih a separated “closed” room. They were able to arrange for a buffet of sandwiches for their meetings. In Buffalo, NY, the search led to the Airport Holiday Inn. That hotel has several meeting rooms of different sizes and full catering services. Meetings have included a hot buffet setup specifically for them in their meeting room.

Once the groups had found a meeting place and a quick method for feeding their guests, the planning moved onto promotions. All groups realized that to effectively communicate in today’s busy world, they had best utilize email as one of their forms of communication. After compiling a list of email addresses of those interested, an email was sent out advertising the meeting. At meetings, attendees are encouraged to drop their business cards in a basket and sign in providing their name and email address. Collecting the addresses of attendees helps build an email list for use in advertising next month’s meeting.

In addition to word-of-mouth advertising and email, some choose to maintain a website like www.bmfbuffalo.com. The simple website for the BMF Buffalo Chapter contains some information about the local organization, its meeting schedule, coming events, and some additional information like the “Monthly Business Minute.”

With today’s businessman utilizing tools the like the Blackberry and Palm Treo to constantly be in touch with customers and peers, it only makes sense for chapters of Business Men’s Fellowship to use the internet and email to help advertise and operate their local organizations.

BMFUSA is determined to provide chapters with new ideas and direction to reach men in business. Be sure to read the BMF Connection Newsletter and visit www.bmfusa.com to see what others are doing and to participate in an online discussion about meetings.For help in starting a “1-Hour Meeting” in your area, please contact us or call the National Service Center at 800-263-8981.