Forbes Burton’s ‘Networking with a Twist’ Event Takes Over Streetlife Museum

Hull’s Streetlife Museum played host on Friday to several competing teams of local businesspeople frantically looking for clues among the transport exhibits. Bemused onlookers must have wondered what was happening around them, but they’d have hardly believed it was a business networking event even if you’d explained.

After the huge success of a similar event at Grimsby’s Fishing Heritage Centre, Forbes Burton returned to host another sprawling interactive brain teaser across the Streetlife Museum. The venue provided the perfect spot for participating teams to unravel fiendish cryptic clues in the race to secure a grand prize of a premium chocolate and drinks package.

These events aren’t simply a fun way to spend a Friday afternoon, however. While they’re weaving in and out of trams and penny farthings hunting for answers, the teams start to form far stronger relationships than they would making small talk over vol au vents and a cup of coffee.

Making stronger connections

Rick Smith, managing director of Forbes Burton, explained that “the format of these events makes it almost impossible not to forge strong connections with other participants. Each member of a team brings their own skillset to help tackle the questions, and we’ve seen fantastic camaraderie among our attendees today and a fair amount of competitive spirit too!”

“We wanted to create something different and fun that people actually want to attend”

The Forbes Burton founder had initially conceived of the idea for these events when attending a standard networking event. It had been held at a fantastic and interesting venue, but as they were ushered into a boxy room in the back, he was disappointed that there was no scope for attendees to actually enjoy it.

“We’ve all been to networking events with forced and awkward conversations,” Smith said. “We wanted to create something different and fun that people actually want to attend”.

With even more attending the latest event than before, it seems that there’s no shortage of businesspeople that agree with him. Not only did the attendees create strong relationships with their teammates, but there was also time after the prizes were given out for chatting to others too. The beauty is, that the event gave them a shared experience and automatic icebreaker.

If you’re looking to try something other than the awkward card grabs of normal networking events, you’d be advised to keep an eye out for any Forbes Burton events happening in your area in the future.