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53 rently charges 30,000 won at the door and 25,000 by prepay, which mostly just covers the venue cost. In speed-networking, participants sit face-to-face for two minutes and each has one minute for an elevator pitch and to ex- change business cards. McLeod and Lusk guarantee that you leave with 30 business cards from people you actually get to en- gage with. Guest speakers at BNK have included Kenny Park, cofounder of the popular Vatos Urban Tacos restaurant in Itaewon. McLeod says these guest speakers and panels have let participants ask questions such as how the entrepreneur transitioned from teaching English to doing business, or how to register a business in Korea. The organizers love it when people tell them they’ve had all their questions answered. After the event, there is also what Ko- reans call i-cha, a second round at BNK’s sponsor Tiwi Lounge in Itaewon for more networking over drinks. “BNK has been a valuable resource for meeting like-minded entrepreneurs and working professionals in Korea,” says Jo- seph Gerocs, a senior consultant at Forte Communication. “In a short time you get to make valuable connections and hear from a lot of interesting people.” “We’re more focused on our philosophy of Koreans meeting non-Koreans for busi- ness,” says McLeod. “We want real people who are either struggling to go from teach- ing to business or are students looking for work. They are not executives; they are people who are in the normal salary jobs who want to change or try an investment or try to be an entrepreneur.” While BNK was originally intended to be a vehicle to promote World Markets and Lusk’s company Artam Consultancy, the networking event has grown into its own, becoming more of a passion project. “This is a for-love thing for us. We don’t make money out of this. We get exposure,” says McLeod. “People know who we are and we get connected. That’s how we get paid for this one. We just get to build our brand in Korea.” Since then, the two men have merged their two Seoul-based businesses into World Markets Korea, the main sponsor of the event. They are hoping to strike a deal with the Seoul Metropolitan Government to expand into a free-admission monthly event, as well as improve opportunities to connect with non-English speaking Koreans and Ko- rean small and medium-sized enterprises. “Koreans meeting non-Koreans for busi- ness is at the center of our philosophy and matches with the Seoul government’s goals of promoting globalization,” says Mc- Leod. “Right now, the demographics of the events are 50-50 Korean-foreigner, and 50-50 male-female, but they’re all English speakers. That’s the issue for us right now. Getting Korean-based Koreans, people who haven’t been overseas and haven’t learned English, to communicate with us is going to be a big challenge.” “In addition to the translation services,” adds Lusk, “if we manage to get our events there, we will be meeting them with what the mayor of Seoul is trying to do, which is to try and combine not only entrepreneurs in Korea and help them start their businesses, but also connecting them to Korean SMEs as well. I feel that if we get connected with the SMG, that would help boost our plan of getting more Koreans involved.” Regardless of whether the proposal to the Seoul government goes through, BNK plans to become a monthly event starting next year and alternating between VIP and open sessions. They hope to continue fa- cilitating more business opportunities in an increasingly diversifying Korea. “Being a foreigner and working for a Ko- rean company with long working hours, my opportunity to broaden my network here is quite limited,” says Ardini Ridhatillah, an an- alyst and relationship manager at Kookmin Bank. “BNK has not only given me opportu- nities to build bridges with other profession- als from other industries, but also opened my door to connect with the entrepreneur community in Korea.” The next BNK event is on Nov. 15 from 2 to 5 p.m. at Platoon in Gangnam. ‘wE’RE MORE FOCuSED ON OuR pHILOSOpHy OF KOREANS MEETING NON-KOREANS FOR BuSINESS. wE wANT REAL pEOpLE wHO ARE EITHER STRuGGLING TO GO FROM TEACHING TO BuSINESS OR ARE STuDENTS LOOKING FOR wORK. THEy ARE NOT EXECuTIVES; THEy ARE pEOpLE wHO ARE IN THE NORMAL SALARy jOBS wHO wANT TO CHANGE OR TRy AN INVESTMENT OR TRy TO BE AN ENTREpRENEuR.’ juSTIN MCLEOD, BuSINESS NETwORK KOREA CO-ORGANIzER www.world-markets.biz www.world-marketskorea.biz www.facebook.com/WorldMKTS www.linkedin.com/company/world-markets www.twitter.com/WMKTs www.youtube.com/Worldmarketsbiz www.plus.google.com/u/0/s/World%20 Markets%20Biz Site (Global) Site (Korea) Facebook Linked In Twitter YouTube Google+ World Markets www.businessnetworkkorea.com www.meetup.com/Business-Network-Korea www.facebook.com/BusinessNetworkKorea www.twitter.com/BNetworkKorea www.linkedin.com/ groups?gid=5123836&trk=myg_ugrp_ovr Website Meetup Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Business network Korea