Frequently Asked Questions

General

What are the benefits of ConnectForLunch?

Handing someone a business card at a "networking" event isn't the same thing as an intimate, face-to-face meeting with another businessperson. Networking is really about building trust with other businesspeople; it has to be personal, and it takes time.

Most "networking" events don't provide you with that intimate, face-to-face meeting. They provide you with only the first step. In a typical networking event with other businesspeople, you're the one who has to go up to someone you don't know on your own and introduce yourself. Then if you get their business card, it's up to you to follow up later to get that face-to-face meeting. Getting that face-to-face meeting often requires additional phone calls, voice mails, scheduling a convenient meeting time, and in many cases paying for someone else's lunch in addition to your own.

ConnectForLunch skips all those steps, and directly provides you with face-to-face meetings with other Chamber members right away. You just click "yes" to an email invitation on Tuesday, and the following week you'll be sitting down to lunch with two or three other businesspeople. It's as easy as that – no more handing out business cards, no more introducing yourself to strangers, no more follow-up phone calls. And you pay only for your own lunch.

How does it work?

ConnectForLunch arranges face-to-face meetings over lunch with two or three other Chamber members at convenient Chamber member restaurants - create up to 100 quality business relationships over the course of a year on your lunch break!

You just click "yes" on Tuesday's email invitation, and ConnectForLunch will:

• Create a lunch group for you and two or three other Chamber members for the following week
• Make the restaurant reservation for you; all you have to do is show up.
• Choose a restaurant that is the most convenient driving distance for everyone in the group based on the address you provide in your profile.
• Send your bio to everyone in the group beforehand, so they'll be expecting you when you arrive – no more having to introduce yourself to strangers
• Save your lunch partners' information for you after lunch, available to you 24/7 – no more writing on the backs of business cards.

Do I have to be a Chamber member to participate?

Yes. The ConnectForLunch program is offered exclusively to Chamber of Commerce members. To find out if your Chamber is currently offering the program, please give us a call at 877-745-1962 ext.1.

Who pays for my lunch?

You pay for your own meal. The restaurant has been told ahead of time that each person in your group will need separate checks.

How much does a subscription cost?

For only $9.95 a month, you get two lunches a month arranged completely for you, at convenient restaurants. At each lunch, you can spend an hour or more at personal, face-to-face meetings with two or three other Chamber members. You just show up. It's really that easy!

Can I cancel anytime?

Absolutely. You can cancel easily online 24 hours a day. There are no cancellation fees although there are no refunds for partial months.

Lunches

How many people are in each group?

You will be assigned to a group of either three or four people, including yourself. On occasion, you may be in a group that starts out as a group of three people and one person cancels. You may then find yourself having a one-on-one meeting with another Chamber member.

Whether it's a group of two, three or four, each has its advantages. For example, if you're in a group of four, you'll be creating more relationships than in a group of three. But, you'll end up spending less time with each person at the table.

If you're in a smaller group, that will be a great opportunity to really get to know the other people at lunch with you and thereby develop a stronger relationship. After all, ConnectForLunch is all about developing relationships, the stronger the better.

When do I find out where I'm going to lunch?

Friday morning you'll receive an email with the name and address of the restaurant and the names of your lunch partners. You can also view this same information by logging into your ConnectForLunch account on Friday. We post it there at the same time you receive your assignment email.

When you receive this email, you can click on your lunch partner's names to read their profiles and learn about them before lunch. They will also be reading your profile and thinking of questions and referrals for you.

When are the lunches held?

Your Chamber's lunches are on a Tuesday, Wednesday or Thursday each week at 12pm. Once you've created a ConnectForLunch account, you'll have access to a calendar that shows the upcoming lunch dates for your Chamber's program. Planning ahead is easy.

How do you choose lunch locations?

Lunches are always at Chamber member restaurants. Once our software puts a group together on Thursday evening, it looks at the address listed in each person's profile. Then, it maps everyone in the group and chooses a restaurant that gives everyone the most convenient driving distance possible.

How does ConnectForLunch match Members for lunch?

We won't sit you at lunch with a competitor. We also won't sit you with "target clients." We think that looking for specific "target clients" is not really networking to establish business relationships; it's selling. Our philosophy is that a sale will feed you for a day, but a strong business relationship will feed you for a lifetime.

Everyone at your lunch table has about 20 people that they have close relationships with. It's their strong network, composed of family, neighbors, colleagues, close friends, the people they know from church, etc.

When you sit down at the table, your lunch partners may not be the people you're interested in. But they may be married to, or play tennis with, or be in a book group with the very people you want to be introduced to.

So when you sit down with three people, you're basically auditioning for an introduction to those 40 to 60 people that are in their personal network.