The Layoff Lounge - May 30, 2001
This month out, the Layoff Lounge moved east to Pasadena.
It was a great night for it, and the venue was in the 'basement bar and lounge'
of Domenico's near Old Town. When I entered (a little late!), all eyes were on
the speaker. The crowd was smaller than their other events, so I could quickly locate the driving team behind
the Layoff Lounge, Kelly Perdew and Jeremy Grocke, and asked them how things were
going so far. They told me the smaller crowd was to be expected on this side of
the city, but enough people had asked for an event out here, so
they kindly obliged. They also told me that the Layoff Lounge has expanded well
beyond California, and now they have monthly events in eight cities across the
country, with hopes of launching three or four more during summer. They
were both leaving for events the next day, and already had 500 RSVPs in
anticipation of Thursday's San Jose event! I gave them my congratulations and
attempted to give an ear to the speaker at the back of the room.
The speaker was Adam Miller, president
of CyberU. He provided some very practical career-search advice to the crowd.
He spoke briefly about how the industry got to this (low) point in the economy,
where we could go from here, and how to look for the right
job. He recommended that people find a career they really enjoy, not just'a
job.' He also gave some sound advice on how to get an interview at a firm, how
to research that firm and some salary-negotiation tips.
After Mr. Miller was done speaking,
there was a break before the Karma Club started. So, I took the opportunity to
talk with other attendees about why there were at the event. I met David
Samuels of Blue Acumen who was looking for a 'New Biz Guru,' an entrepreneur
who would be willing to help them build their integrated communications agency.
They've been around since 1999, but are about to relaunch their site and
company. David said he came to the event to see how it differed from the west
side events, and to find out what types of backgrounds the attendees came from.
He made a few connections that night, so I hope one of them panned out for him.
I also met two designer/directors
looking for work, Suzanne Vasaeli and Merrilyn Romen. Suzanne is a freelancer
on interactive web projects, and Merrilyn has her own company (www.mromen.com)
that is focused on the entertainment and fashion industry. She told me she'd
been to the last event at Westwood and really enjoyed the Karma
Club and wanted to experience that again here. At that moment, Jeremy stepped
up to the mic and told everyone to get ready to start the Club, so I was about
to find out what it was all about!
Karma Club was Jeremy's brainchild
based on late 90s dating practices where you would go to a venue and sit at a
chair to interview a prospective mate for 30 seconds, then move one chair over
and interview the next person. reat idea for networking, huh!? It’s like
"speed dating meets job fair meets networking." Ten or so people
choose a table littered with 'Post-it' note pads. Once the moderator starts the
clock, you introduce yourself and why you're there (job, employee, partnership,
etc.) The others at your table may have job leads or contacts that could help you.
They jot it down on a 'Post it' note and hand it to you. This takes place in
less than a minute. Then the next person speaks and you jot down leads for
them! It was a fun idea, and a practical one too because it gets people
actively communicating with each other; no more walking around and trying to
read nametags! Also, the tables at this event were separated by industry focus,
so you could really meet people of your interest. The tables were labeled as
Business Development & Strategy, Operations & Finance, Marketing
Strategy and Technology.
I sat at the Business table and heard
from participants. Right after the first person, a self-employed consultant,
gave his spiel, three people handed him 'Post-it' notes full of contacts. I
decided to join in, and after introducing myself I received two notes of
contacts! There was time to switch tables after a while, so you could really
cover a lot of ground. The only people who were a bit disappointed by this
scenario were the two women I met earlier, because they were the only
creatively-focused people there. Most of the attendees fell into the four other groups I mentioned above, but
Jeremy and Kelly tried to round up some other designer-types to talk with. In
all, it was a very fun idea and well executed.
The sponsors of the event were
Headhunter.net and UBS PaineWebber. Jeremy told me they had just signed a deal
with Headhunter, whereby Headhunter sends city-based Layoff Lounge meeting
notices to its job-seeker database before each event -- a great
promotional deal for both companies and the seekers. Although I don't need a
job, I hope to keep on attending and reporting on these meetings because the
Layoff Lounge team is a very nice group of guys and they are exceptionally good
at organizing their events!
The next meeting will be in the OC area
on June 19th at Newport Beach, and the next LA event is TBD. See their site at
www.layofflounge.com for more info.
