We had a HUGE success with our first Networking After Hours, inspired by Josh Dorkin and Kevin Amolsch of BiggerPockets

[Ann Bellamy]

Our first networking event was a SMASH HIT! Over 225 people attended, and blew all our expectations away!

Months and months ago, Joshua Dorkin and I were talking about the challenges of creating events that did not include selling speakers. He referred me to Kevin Amolsch, who hosts free networking events in his area. Kevin and I chatted, he was very helpful, and I brought the concept to my local partners.

We decided to follow that model of free networking events, and started creating the Black Diamond Real Estate Investors starting with our first meeting in Waltham, Ma. Our launch was Tuesday night, and having some experience with lowered attendance and lack of interest in conventional REIA's, I was hoping to top 100 people, because of our commitment to no selling speakers, similar to the Bigger Pockets model of no selling speakers at the Summit.

We were totally blown away when we went over 200 people, stopped counting at 223, because it was so busy, and were thrilled to hear the overwhelmingly positive feedback. One of my partners says we had over 250!

And for the icing on the cake, I had people stop me and tell me they came because of Bigger Pockets! Woohoo! In our planning stages, we had decided to promote BP because of the similarly aligned concepts in networking and education.

So thank you, Josh and Kevin, and thanks to those BP'ers who came to our launch, hope to see you at many more! We have plans to add a second event in Worcester, Ma as well.