I am VP of Business Development for Viadeo UK and Ireland, I am passionate about the internet, social networks, networking and generally building partnerships, meeting and connecting with people. As a connector, I think it is important to think about building a valuable business network from the day we start out on our careers because we now have the knowledge and technology to access a wealth of contacts, information and opportunities that we would otherwise not realize or be lost.
As the old saying goes ‘It’s not what you know but who you know!’
Having joined Viadeo since 2007, Viadeo is one of the world’s largest business social networks with over 1.6 million members across Europe and allows you network in 7 languages (English, French, German, Italian, Spanish, Dutch and Portuguese). The network is free to join and members use Viadeo to find clients, suppliers, business partners, jobs and employees from all over the world online. Viadeo also allows you to post ads, participate in business forums and to organise and manage offline networking events.
Originally founded in 2003 by 200 high-flying entrepreneurs in France, Viadeo started as a private network of business people who realised that they could share key business information and solutions to day-to-day business problems if they networked together on the Internet. The network was opened to the public in 2004 and grew to over one million members in less than 2 years. Together with Tianji (www.tianji.com) the Viadeo Group has over 2.6m members online.
