Business & Beer new format begins this week

This week marks the one year anniversary of when Tanya and I launched the business networking group, Business & Beer. We started Business & Beer with multiple intents; those being primarily as a way to provide small business owners an opportunity for more informal networking events, as a way to help promote local businesses and to display how our company, Synergy DTI, Inc, could create a networking group from nothing, then develop it via social media, with the end goal of generating additional business for us. There is no question that we accomplished our goals; members of our group did generate additional business between them and others learned the value of networking. Additionally, we brought exposure and business to the establishments that hosted our events.

In the past year we had 47 Business & Beer gatherings at 12 different microbreweries, brewpubs and gastropubs with groups as large as 25 and as small as 4-5; with the last few gatherings being smaller than normal. While we acknowledge that sometimes smaller is better, we have come to the conclusion that trying to have these meetings on a weekly basis is too much for most people to participate in. Currently, five of the locations we visit brew beer onsite and there is another opening within the next two or three months. We have decided that we will meet once a month and we are going to limit our gatherings to microbreweries and brewpubs; in other words, only where they actually brew their own beer. With the growth we will be seeing in the South Bay, this means we will visit our host brewers a maximum of twice a year. It is our hope that with the new format of once a month we can build our numbers back up to double-digits. We have notified and thanked all the gastropubs of our new format and we really appreciate their hospitality; we also encourage you to remember them when looking for a dining experience that includes a great craft beer selection.

That being said, this Thursday July 11, Business & Beer will return to Strand Brewing Company located at 23520 Telo Avenue in Torrance. Strand Brewing is a microbrewery so they do not serve food, but you are welcome to bring food in. There is plenty of free on street parking and there is always a nice group. We hope you can make it. Cheers!