Link to Charlotte Tops 70 members

As of June 30th, in less than two months, LinktoCharlotte has reached 70 members. We have not officially announced anything to the public, but have grown via word of mouth to our associates and friends and those on a global network called LinkedIn.

As I reflect back on the goals, here are the top 10 we met:

1. Have business leaders form diverse companies in the community join
2. Have well known civic and sports organizations join
3. Have a kickoff meeting to meet and receive feedback from our members
4. Establish a regular low cost event for members to meet
5. Learn the administration tools needed to operate the site.
6. Bring in paid sponsors or members.
7. Have members post of news of interesting events or places to visit
8. Fill out their "visual space" and keyword profiles
9. Find a passionate core of early adopters who will help propel this forward.
10. Grow at an average of 1 to 2 new people per day.

As we start the third quarter our goal is to invite the media to join and learn about our site and social networking. This would include newspaper, magazines, radio and television. Having a background in media (see www.mediamensch.com I believe that the real core of social networking is "communications". The goal of this site is to "connect" individuals who may not otherwise ever meet. For example, how does a public relations professional meet an organic gardening expert. (yes, we do have one). They typically don't go to the same industry networking groups. On a personal side as we get more isolated from each other, our visual space area can help you find people of similar interests and let you know, through a visual bubble map or clould that you may want to connect.

This is exciting stuff.

Also exciting is that our other sister networks in New York City, Chicago and Nashville continue to grow as well. We also have trade groups for the wireless and "Relationship Networking" industries as part of platform which linktocharlotte runs on. This gives our development team the funding needed to propel this platform forward and create awareness as we cross promote between cities and industry groups.

Thanks for all your support during our initial launch.

VIP Kickoff a success

On June 14th, we had a very successful VIP kickoff of LinktoCharlotte sponsored by the Carolina Panthers. The following members were in attendance

Patrick "Hutch" Hutchinson
Candy Stone
Stephen Young
Rory Brady
Diane Stewart
Brandon Rosenthal
Erica Singleton
Patrick Chang
Robert Bramwell

We were welcomed by Mike Mahoney of the Panthers and provided with a car magnet and refreshments. We had a chance for introductions and then had an overview of LinktoCharlotte and the idea of localized networking on the web. We discussed how this is "our site" and the more people we invite in, the more opportunites to find trusted friends and business associates.

Some of the discussion led to areas on how to use the "visual space" area, how to post video blogs, and the concept of groups. This was a wonderful start with a great group of individuals.

Our next steps are to:
1) Invite more friends
2) Have a "hands-on" education program for members
3) Plan a calendar of "monthly" events

Thanks to our sponsor level member:
Candy Stone, MyTownHomeRealty-Maison Properties
Andrew Kaplan, eWarrior LLC and MediaMensch Networks