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FACE TIME In a digital age, professionals have discovered that the best relationships are those conducted in person. GW looks at the renaissance of the business club The internet off ers businesspeople endless possible contacts, quick connections and virtual meetings. But for all its speed and ease, the digital world won’t let professionals meet up with new partners over a glass of wine or seal future deals with a handshake. It’s this face-to-face contact that explains why, even as digital communications get better year on year, business clubs are enjoying renewed popularity. ‘If an online relationship isn’t also maintained offl ine, it can become virtually meaningless,’ says Peer-Arne Böttcher, head of the Business Club Hamburg. He’s visibly enthused about the growing interest in the club, set in an elegant white villa overlooking the Elbe, where professionals of all stripes can enjoy fi rst-class cuisine at all sorts of events. At Open Club nights new members are welcomed and everyone gets chatting, with conversations frequently revolving around new business ideas. On other evenings, the club hosts lectures on subjects ranging from LED technology to sustainability. There are also more relaxed events, such as a business breakfast with advice on neck relaxation for execs welded to a phone and desk all day. ‘But the events are primarily about getting people to make direct, personal contact,’ says Böttcher. ‘That’s when people realise that digital isn’t everything. The club off ers numerous personal amenities, but it’s the business contacts that make it real value for money.’ The Business Club Hamburg currently boasts around 820 members from 78 diff erent professional backgrounds. The Hamburgers also maintain close contact with business clubs in other cities, such as the Havanna Lounge Bremen and the Wirtschaftsclub Düsseldorf. ‘In an age of chatting, surfi ng and emails, we want to bring people together,’ says the Wirtschaftsclub’s director, Rüdiger Goll. ‘We encourage people to get together by putting on lots of events, where it’s easy to get into conversation, and that includes the odd after-work curry lounge.’ Other clubs associated with the Wirtschaftsclub – such as the Rotonda Business Club in Cologne, Club International Leipzig, Frankfurt’s Airport Club and Stuttgart’s Schloss Solitude – have a similar philosophy. The latter, which opened two years ago, is a member of International Associate Clubs, a global network that off ers members access to around 250 private, business, golf, country and sports clubs in cities such as London, Paris, Dubai, New York, Sydney and Peking. Club partners located abroad include London’s National Liberal Club situated on the Thames and a stone’s throw from Trafalgar Square, and the Gild International in Barcelona, as well as the Haute Club, which perches high above the roofs of Zurich’s banking district. Trend analyst Peter Wippermann says that the boom in these ‘analogue’ meeting places is no surprise. ‘We’re ‘Real meetings are more precious than they were before. People are using their spare time more intensively’ talking about rationalising time,’ he says. ‘Virtual networks are useful when you don’t have much time to spare. That’s also precisely why real meetings are more precious than they were before. People are using their spare time more intensively.’ Virtual social networks still have their place of course, says Wippermann, but you have to choose the one most apt for purpose. Facebook is for posting pictures of parties; LinkedIn is more executive-oriented – Wippermann describes it as ‘a sailing club among networks’. Unlike the internet’s social networks, business clubs aren’t N E T W O R K I N G free. Membership of the Business Club Hamburg and Cologne’s Rotonda Business Club costs €1,200 a year. From 2013, membership of Frankfurt’s Airport Club will cost €1,400 per annum, and in London, members will have to pay around €800. Joining fees range from €500 to €2,000. And it’s not just business clubs that are bringing like-minded people together. Former Hamburg MP Stefanie Strasburger’s business idea, the Strasburger Kreise (Strasburger Circle) regularly invites guests into her home, like the educated women of the 18th and 19th centuries who opened their doors to guests to discuss and philosophise. ‘We invite people of interest to talk to the group,’ says Strasburger. ‘In the beginning, the speakers were mainly politicians, but I’ve since expanded the group to include people like the vice president of the legendary St Pauli football club, Bernd-Georg Spies, and a theatre director.’ The growing interest in the evening meetings at her home is striking. Her off er of ‘bringing together people who shape Hamburg professionally, politically, culturally’ has become increasingly popular. It shows that in a virtual world, interesting, thoughtful people still want to gather together with like-minded folk. GW—125
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