The Currency of Meaningful Relationships

With the dynamic world of social media moving at breakneck speed, we’re all attempting to get our arms around the technology du jour to make and manage meaningful professional relationships and personal friendships… and in the process it seems as though we’re losing the opportunities to connect the old-fashioned way – face-to-face. This isn’t a suggestion that one approach is more effective than the other; quite the contrary. The great news is now there’s a “both/and” solution - “have your cake and eat it too”.

Enter Dahyu Patel, of TappedIn DC, who is dedicated to making sure that the art of in-person networking isn’t lost. He’s come up with an intriguing way to unite online and in-person networking forums to help people create meaningful and actionable professional and personal relationships in local communities. “After all,” Patel says, “friends prefer to do business with friends.”

Patel’s concept of taking one central belief – when it comes to business, you can’t do it alone – and combining it into a human-meets-electronic networking forum is ingenious. TappedIn DC is based on local culture. It’s the only organization in the area that focuses on human business relationship building and combines both digital and real-world opportunities geared toward Baby Boomer, Gen X, Gen Y, Millennium professionals. When participating in TappedIn DC’s networking events, attendees are assigned networking Connecters (visualize “networking nodes”) and promised a relationship-focused process that guarantees one true solid connection per event… with action delivered by the next day.

While individuals’ passions may be all over the map, the overarching theme is that these are people who want to share their generosity and wisdom with others within a “give-to-get” community. TappedIn DC is not a sales or lead generation-focused community; all profits from events go to non-profit organizations focused on helping improve the quality of life for the younger generation in DC with affirming and life-changing experiences.

Patel is excited about the possibilities. He shares, “Our community has built a gathering place similar to having the comfort, ambience and graciousness of a community living room. Our attendees understand that their first greeting in meeting someone is ‘How can I help you?’”

Understanding and managing the currency of meaningful relationships while giving back to the community. It doesn’t get more valuable than that.