By Jason Moxness, Market President, Core Bank
Have you ever wondered where local business owners and entrepreneurs gather to socialize, network and connect in a casual and fun environment?
Well luckily, we live in Kansas City which is fertile ground for small businesses to learn and grow and there are many opportunities for these types of experiences. One such group that hosts these events on a consistent basis is the Hats Club of which I’m a board member.
The Hats Club
The Hats Club of Kansas City is a non-profit networking group that specializes in creating great networking and learning opportunities. We’re called the Hats Club because entrepreneurs wear lots of hats and can often benefit from other entrepreneurs who may be in a similar situation or experience.
At the Hats Club we host monthly events usually on the 2nd Wednesday of every month from 4-6pm with a consistent and casual format always involving food, refreshments and networking and often times guest speakers.
The Small Business Spotlights that we do are often my favorites. This is where we host an event at the location of a small business to both promote that business as well as let the business owner tell their entrepreneurial story which I always find fascinating. There’s nothing better than hearing directly from the founder of a business and learning about both their successes and failures on the road to fulfilling their entrepreneurial dream.
Hats Club at Core Bank
Last month, I was honored to be selected to be in the Small Business Spotlight and tell the story of how we started Core Bank in Kansas City. The event was hosted in our new space at 7400 College Boulevard and turned out to be a great evening. The food and drink were catered by Coaches, the networking was great and the people who attended were top notch as usual.
However, I forgot one important detail – the sign-in sheet! It’s always nice to know who attends our events, so a quick sign-in is always important. In a moment of entrepreneurial quick thinking, I just told everybody to sign our wall – yes literally write their name and company name on the wall of our “War Room”! Truth be told, we painted one of our walls with a clear coat that allows you to write on it with dry erase marker. It’s a great space for us to hold our creative meetings where pictures and numbers can often bring more clarity than words.
Anyway, what transpired that night was one creative idea to sign a wall that allowed others to show their creativity in some of the pictures that they drew. It was fun to step back at the end of the event and look at the wall and smile at all of the really great people that took the time to come hear the story of a small business and have a little fun in the process. It makes me wonder how many opportunities we miss to be creative because we decide to do something the same way we always have done it.
To all of you that attended – you are all on my Wall of Fame!