ABCN Member Bay Business Centers Employs Creative Marketing While Giving Back to Local Community

ALLIANCE Business Centers NETWORK Member Bay Business Centers (BBC) has actively pursued a unique way to give back to  and bring their local community together. Last week BBC held their First Inaugural Golf Tournament to launch the establishment of their two new programs, First Meeting Place and the Gbiz.me Foundation.

The Gbiz.me Foundation was established by Edward Strickland, Owner of BBC, to recognize students who have demonstrated outstanding achievements in innovation and possess a strategy to solve complex problems the world faces. The golf tournament benefitted the Gbiz.me Foundation’s scholarship fund and was held as part of the 2009 Global Entrepreneurship Week that was celebrated worldwide.

In addition to the tournament, BBC hosted luncheons at each of their three California executive suites centers in Fremont, San Francisco and Pleasanton. BBC also hosted a reception at First Meeting Place, where they recognized a local scholar for her outstanding achievements, including a business plan that received recognition from the Keller Graduate School of Management at DeVry University.

“This was something we wanted to change in our company methodology - by sharing our vision and our core competencies with our clients, partners, and supporters,” said Edward Strickland, Owner of BBC.

Edward and his team marketed the events using social media platforms including LinkedIn and Facebook as well as direct email. Event attendees included clients, prospects, and many local and neighboring businesses. The BBC team was able to reach out to and educate them on the business center services they provide that can support and be catalysts for their companies’ growth.

Edward described the great networking success of his events, saying, “Synergies are being built as we explained our venture to many people who were curious about the mysterious new entities of Gbiz.me and First Meeting Place.”

“We have learned more about what people want from our services by having these types of activities. Our approach of having fun activities for adults who are in business has been a good way to pull in clients vs. us just pushing our services. We have seen over the years that the need for people to be in the office all day is becoming less and less. The innovation of ubiquitous communications and the virtual office has kept people away. Social events give them a reason to come to the office to meet other people who can collaborate. The value has turned out to be different that we first expected. People come to meet other people for different reasons. They seem to like meeting new professionals in a safe environment where they can both socialize and have fun.”

BBC’s First Meeting Place and Gbiz.me Foundation, ventures that are both founded and headed by Edward, are excellent examples of the creative marketing and the giving back to the community that happen in the office business center industry. Congratulations to Edward and his team on the successful launch of these programs! We look forward to reporting on more of their creative marketing, networking successes and community involvement.

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