I am professional networker who operates 250 WhatsApp groups to facilitate virtual business networking. These cover a wide range of subjects such as Real-Estate, M&A, Commodities, eCommerce, Automotive, construction, fashion, all kinds of tech, Powerful Women and many more. I have been extolling the virtues of networking this way long before the pandemic, not least since it saves so much time, money and carbon. My ‘Wonderful World Of Virtual Networking’ LinkedIn article written in 2018 bears witness to this. But perhaps the biggest benefit afforded by networking this way is its globality. For those of us in the brain game, the whole wide world is our proverbial oyster. When I started my career in Banking in what seems like an epoch ago, I was sometimes reprimanded – quite rightly – for chatting too much. Now, some thirty-five years later, I am capitalizing on my gregarious nature by connecting dots and facilitating introductions using the latest virtual networking and event technologies on the market today. Virtual Power-Networking™️ is my sweet spot – tell me who you want to get in front of, and I'll do my best to help you meet her. I say ‘her’ because I am passionate about helping women. I simply cannot understand why only 3% of venture capitalists are women. Which is why I created the ‘Women in VC’ WhatsApp group. The ‘Powerful Women’ one has morphed into something quite spectacular and is the hottest ticket in town! I spent the majority of my career in telecoms and was first-to-market with mobile logos and ringtones back in the day when every other person had a Nokia. A decade or so later, I launched the world’s first fundraising celebrity chatline. WhatsApp is of course a telecoms app and there are two billion reasons why people should network this way – because that’s how many people use it. Ironically, the one country that does not use it so much is its birthplace. Only one in five Americans use WhatsApp. I’m on a mission to make that one in four. As we slowly emerge from the pandemic, people who met virtually in my WhatsApp Groups are now meeting in person for the first time. Witnessing virtual morph into reality is a beautiful sight to behold. Conversely, people that I meet in person now have the opportunity of network virtually an ‘always open’ environment full of the most eclectic, electric, eccentric group of extraordinary trailblazers. The crème de la crème of LinkedIn, if you will. I subscribe to the ORS (Open, Random and Supportive) mindset – the antithesis of corporate thinking which is more often than not closed and secretive. I encourage people who have suffered trauma in your life share it. I like to keep things authentic. Networking is universal. We are all hard-wired to grow our tribes by engaging in this ubiquitous socio-economic activity. At the end of the day, business boils down to people and trust. By creating an environment where people feel safe to engage with one another, good things happen. Friendships are being forged. And ultimately that’s what life’s about: relationships. Relationships with our family, friends and fellow human beings in general.