WonderfulWorldOfUltimate

A blog about mixing business with pleasure.
The Wonderful World of Ultimate and LinkedIn.
By Koen Alexander:
Handler, Crunch, Amsterdam
Analyst/Designer, Ordina, Nieuwegein

donderdag 20 maart 2008

Why mix Business with Pleasure?

Why mix Business (your work connections) with Pleasure (your frisbee buddies)?

Well, for instance:

  • Let's say you are thinking about applying for a job at company X. You can search amongst the group members and see whether there is already a frisbee player working at company X. I myself would find it easier to approach an unknown frisbee player to ask whether it is any fun to work at that company, than aiming the same question at just any random person on LinkedIn working at that company.
  • Let's say you would like to give paid Ultimate workshops. You can search amongst the frisbeeplayers for interesting companies and you immediately have someone in the company who knows what you are talking about. He/she will probably be able to tell you who in the company organizes work outings.
  • Let's say you want to get sponsorship for a tournament you are organizing. How do you approach Coca-Cola, Nike, KLM, ...? You get someone internally to introduce you and your ideas to the PR department.
    Get my drift?

I look forward to other suggested uses, or better, success stories about the Wonderful World Of Ultimate.

Cheers.

Invitation to join WonderfulWorldOfUltimate on LinkedIn

2008-03-02 I just set up a new group on LinkedIn called Wonderful World of Ultimate, and I am inviting Ultimate players to join it.

The short story
"This is a group for players and former players of Ultimate. As Ultimate is a self refereed sport governed by the Spirit of the Game, you know that people who play it have the trustworthiness, team spirit and ability-to-make-friends that you are looking for in an employee, colleague, manager or business partner."

Here's the link to join: http://www.linkedin.com/e/gis/60474/7B572900B4E8
If you are not on LinkedIn yet, you first need to create an account, which is a couple of minutes work. Otherwise, you should be able to join in a few clicks.

About LinkedIn
For those of you who are not in LinkedIn yet: LinkedIn is a networking site just like Facebook and Hyves, but aimed at Professionals. You can put up CV information, and you can link with colleagues, former colleagues etc. LinkedIn allows you to indicate that you are member of a group, for instance 'ex-Oracle employees', or 'Certified Garbage Specialists'. It then allows you to search specifically amongst group members.

Pass it on.