黑洞社区

A debut that was admirably timed, it must be said, just when lots of us need that kind of thing most 鈥� in the depths of the recession. And to kick things off they got hold of James Caan 鈥� he of Dragons鈥� Den fame, not the man that acted opposite Al Pacino in The Godfather 鈥� to give a speech on how to make a buck in tough times.

Now, this particular James Caan seemed to provoke a certain amount of controversy among the attendees of this inaugural event. (You can see what he actually said on 黑洞社区鈥檚 website.) Well known for his disparaging put-down of every hopeful scheme that comes his way, Caan confessed that he wouldn鈥檛 even have put money into the first investment he said 鈥測es鈥� to 鈥� a treadmill for dogs 鈥� if his family hadn鈥檛 nagged him for being a scrooge.

For Neil Stanley, Net Worth鈥檚 chief organiser and principle host for the evening, the speech was inspirational. But for others, there was a certain element of, well, smugness about it. One said: 鈥淗e seemed to be belittling people who aren鈥檛 doing brilliantly for not working hard enough. But by definition, if we鈥檙e here at this event we are working hard to improve our networks.鈥�

'James Caan seemed to be belittling people who aren鈥檛 doing brilliantly'

鈥淪lightly patronising鈥� was the verdict of another attendee.

But not everyone was offended. One of the networkers, Amanda Recknell from architect Tilney Shane, defended the dragon: 鈥淗e seemed to know what he was talking about. What he thinks is important is the people. Not the product being sold, but having faith in the people behind the business.鈥�

Inevitably, conversations drifted from the event itself to the gloomy state of the industry. Cue much earnest discussion of the importance of networking when you don鈥檛 know where your next dollar is coming from. Carl Carrington, who has a day job as a director at engineer Delap & Waller as well being one of the team at Net Worth, said he was disappointed that the public sector lifelines being offered to the industry seemed always to go to the big players. 鈥淵ou look 鈥� most of the people here are small practitioners. These frameworks, like the Olympics, they just get mopped up by the big contractors 鈥� the smaller practices are squeezed.鈥�

There鈥檚 not much the Corleone family needed teaching about entrepreneurship

The popular view at the event seemed to be that increasing entrepreneurship is the way out of the recession, hence the choice of the Beeb鈥檚 Caan to give the opening pep talk.

Mind you, there鈥檚 not much the Corleone family needed teaching about entrepreneurship 鈥� and I鈥檓 sure Santino 鈥淪onny鈥� Corleone had one heck of a mean network. Would another James Caan have been a better choice?