Florida Creatives is a networking group currently serving Central Florida. Membership is comprised of people who pursue creative activities for work or pleasure. Each month we get together to discuss what we do, share stories, make connections, catch up with friends and have a drink.

FloridaCreatives.com

You can have Florida Creatives in your home town - just pick a day end email some people who are creative for work or pleasure. Advertise it on Upcoming.yahoo.com, FloridaCreatives.com, Facebook, MySpace, or wherever they do FREE event listings. Florida Creatives should not cost anyone to attend or organize.

If you're wondering where to hold an event, look for some place that isn't a national chain - so far we have favored bars because they have food but they don't send a server around every five minutes to make sure you're buying food. Several bars in Florida are now non-smoking, so don't let people complain about that. In Orlando, we try to keep all of our events downtown because it is centrally located and people can drive from Cocoa or Lakeland without too much trouble.

Meeting times on weeknights work well from 6 - 9 PM, Sundays 3 - 6 or 4 - 7. Third Monday is the default, but whatever day you choose, be consistent.

We use FloridaCreatives.com as a way to organize the different groups - you can join a group based on your city, and all members of a group get emailed updates to the group - it's a feature that I use about a week before each event to make announcements, and every so often a conversation will happen there - just keep it on topic - events, news articles, announcements, etc.

FloridaCreatives.com/wiki/florida has a list of relevant websites, wi-fi hotspots, meet-up groups, annual events, companies and lots of other great info based on city/region. Anyone can contribute here, so if your favorite place is missing, feel free to add it.

One important thing about this group is the lack of agenda - we want to be independent of any city or corporation trying to steer the group or the events.

Remember that the point is to meet people and find out what they do - even if you don't get to shake hands with everyone in the room, make at least one new friend each month. Get their email address, invite them to your office, keep the conversation open until the next time you meet.

Wives and girlfriends (and all friends) are welcome at meetings; there are no rules for being a member. We have plenty of attendees each month who don't fit the profile and they keep coming back.