In late 2004 Howard Weisz had a problem. As a long time member of Mid-Atlantic Consultants Network, he had committed to organizing a program on networking for the group. As the day approached he began to realize that he really didn’t even want to moderate this program. So using his well developed consultant skills, he found a solution: get Kay Keenan, founder of Growth Consulting, to present the program. Kay had worked for Howard in their previous lives in Corporate America before Kay became a well known speaker and consultant on…Networking. So Howard outsourced the program to the expert.

Kay, realizing that there should be more than one person if you’re talking about networking, got a panel of volunteers from the MAC members. Steven Smolinsky, founder of Benari LTD, volunteered even though he and Kay did not know each other. Months later, the panel long forgotten, Steve got a call from Kay telling him that the other panelists had all cancelled so it was the two of them. They talked for awhile and thus was born…Conversation on Networking.

They planned The Conversation for the group thinking it was a fun thing to do…once. But then fate intervened. The audience reacted with incredible enthusiasm, interest, and participation. Afterwards testimonials flowed in as attendees discovered rapid results from using the skills they learned. Requests arrived for a repeat Conversation from those unfortunate enough to have missed The Show but fortunate enough to have friends who gave them a report about how wonderful it was.

Being reasonably intelligent, Kay and Steve did the only thing they could…respond to their public and take The Show on the road. The Show is the fully interactive, audience participation, immediate results oriented program on how to be more effective at meeting people and developing these contacts into long term relationships. There have been numerous public and private Shows around the country for executives, attorneys, consultants, college students, job seekers, and random people from all walks of life.

And now we’re moving forward and expanding. We wrote Conversation On Networking, The Book; we’ve been writing The Newsletter for years; Steve’s Blog is now conquering the blogosphere; we’ve developed keynote talks and Networking Products; and our Consulting on helping people and companies develop their story, brand, marketing, and communications is booming. Who would have thought it? And all from a random presentation we agreed to do for an old friend.