Antarctica networking: How far would you go to schmooze?
IT COULD be the premise of a really good reality TV show. A bunch of ambitious entrepreneurs on a boat in Antarctica to see who could network the best.
IT COULD make a great reality TV show: Extreme Networking: Antarctica. But rather than a reality TV show, it’s just reality.
We all know entrepreneurs love a bit of networking — it’s how they get things done. Milling around at some nondescript city hotel or conference centre, they sidle up, shake hands, flash smiles and talk the smooth talk.
Somewhere in the conversation, they’d exchange ideas and a promise to help each other with money or contacts. Yep, normal networking.
But not content with the norm, a group of more than 100 Australian entrepreneurs are going to take it the extreme with an expedition to the end of the Earth. Literally.
In January, these like-minded and ambitious individuals will form the Fire on Ice cohort who will network above ice sheets in the coldest place on the planet. The excursion is being described by its organiser Julio De Lafitte as a “think tank on steroids”.
While for many people, the last thing they want to do is hang out with a bunch of entrepreneurs patting each other on the back for being awesome, this has always been the way of the business world. And if you want in on the millions these guys somehow manage to reap, this is how it’s done.
The Antarctica expedition won’t be all seminars and smoked salmon on blini — although there are plenty covering disruptive technology, the entrepreneurial journey and risk mitigation. For their considerable money, the participants will also go whale watching, exploring, snowshoeing, kayaking and schmoozing with penguins. The animals, not blokes in tuxedos — that’s later at night.
One of the seminars will be given by Sebastien Eckersley Maslin, BlueChilli founder and EY Young Entrepreneur of the Year.
But none of this comes cheap. Tickets to the expedition, run by Quark, will cost you at least $16,000. That’s just the starting price. If you want a fancier room on board the 11-day cruise, it can cost you up to $28,000. That’s over $2500 a day.
Of course, anyone on the trip will likely see some of the money again because it can probably be written off as a tax deduction. We are talking about business folk here — if there’s one thing they know how to do, it’s take advantage of every tax loophole.
Mr De Lafitte said of the expedition: “It’s a think-tank that will inspire radical thinking and produce amazing business. The isolation and awe inspiring environment, coupled with the concentration of like-minded people, will form the perfect setting for innovative business strategies to be created.
Mr De Lafitte said more needs to be done to foster the entrepreneurial community. “I believe business leaders in Australia aren’t doing enough to support entrepreneurial development, and this is indicative in the alarming figures presented by StartupAUS,” he said.
“I also believe there is a tall poppy syndrome that is affecting Australian start-ups. Rather than being bolstered and encouraged, we are holding them back by putting too many obstacles in their way. It’s not surprising they are leaving Australia to establish their brilliant ideas for business elsewhere.”
Mr De Lafitte is part of a group called the Unstoppables, which billed itself as part of the ‘Entrepreneurial Movement’.
On its website, the Unstoppables’ mission statement includes: “As iron file sharpens an iron blade, so too, entrepreneurs sharpen entrepreneurs. We have come together for the betterment of the world and to play a bigger game, to become more aware and more connected. We know that entrepreneurs are the real drivers of social change.”
If you’re keen to join the intrepid explorers, there are still tickets left. Visit Unstoppables to check it out.
Originally published as Antarctica networking: How far would you go to schmooze?