Company founders, Dianne and Greg Hewitt-Long we looking for additional ways to network their existing business as with being in the Northern Colorado area for nearly 20 years, the traditional ways of networking seemed to all be about the same.

They felt that most seemed overpriced, needed a huge time commitment and required that you bring a lead for someone just to name a few. They felt it was all the same people at the events and the meetings…the same people just at different locations in the area. The drawbacks continued as many of them were at the same time and on the same day. They were having to choose which of the events they would attend, and which they would skip. This lowered the value of the group.

Where were all the other business owners in the area? They wanted to reach out to the ones that were not involved in the standard business to business groups. They were looking for a way to give back to each of the communities they had clients in to give them a LOCAL way of networking and to have a different networking experience each time.

After talking to several local business owners in Greeley Colorado about their own networking challenges, it became clear that the need we all had in common was for something quite different and ‘better’.

After a few months of planning and creating the concept of the 2-hour morning business gathering finally happened. The date was February 15^th, 2019, under the name of NoCo Speed Networking. Here are the only two photos we have of our very first event in February of 2019.

During the first year there were many, many, changes, and tweaks to the event; how it flowed, how tickets were sold, the processes, the procedures. Every event brought a new lesson and as events happened, we were blessed with an amazing business community that wanted to volunteer their time and their space to help them get the events up and working on a monthly basis. The structure of the events had been formalized and various “roles” had been defined and documented. They formalized the “job descriptions” of everything from the Event Greeters to Table Captain Directors and Trainers. Even our “Town Crier” has a proper job description.

No guess work, the goal was simple; make sure everyone had a good time and met a few new businesses EACH month that they attended the event. The events all needed to be a positive experience without expectations. something in the event for everyone to gain from it. If the event isn’t a win for the event host, the event sponsors, Table Captains and Attendees, then it just shouldn’t happen. What Greg and Dianne call a “Win-Win-Win-Win”! That has become part of the mission statement.

It was clear that this networking group would be successful, and it would grow outside of the Northern Colorado area. Because of that, the name had to be changed to encompass the new business goal of additional ‘chapters’ that could and would be in other communities all over Colorado.

It was not long before the name change came to pass, and TableTop Networking LLC was born, and the journey continues.

Dianne & Greg Explain TableTop Networking:

How We Grew:

Then COVID-19

It became a difficult time for most small businesses that TTN served. After not having two events because of the shutdown, they realized they COULD make a few changes that could be made to regroup and worked-out cleaning protocols. Explain how they would keep their people safe and then apply for variances in our local areas with the health departments – and they were granted! Greg said they even got compliments from the county department on how well put together the plans were. TTN events were back up and running carefully throughout the pandemic with just a few less people at our events so we had room to spread out further.

We are proud to say that TableTop Networking was awarded “Best Networking Group” in a readers poll the year this article was written. It was an honor to be recognized by the business owners in Colorado, Dianne told us.

TableTop Networking will continue to strive to be the best in offering a fun way for small businesses to get together once a month. We want to shoot higher now. Think positive, right? They even put it on a t-shirt:

Our plans for 2023 and beyond involve our Broomfield Chapter, followed by Brighton and Reunion, and after that, Thornton.

Here are some of the great businesses that have hosted our events over the years: