Jonathan Emmins, founder, Amplify is approaching 2019 differently…

New Year is a time for setting agendas and resolutions. As event industry insiders, we spend our lives bringing people physically together yet, when we’re busy ourselves, making time for coffee and meet-ups feels like a luxury, despite our intrinsic understanding of the power of relationships.

No matter how shiny your shop window, people deal with people. Nothing beats developing personal bonds and recommendations through face-to-face meetings. Think less about ‘networking’, and more about having an inquisitive mind, finding people interesting.

It’s an approach rather than an event, as much from informal routes such as coffees, dinners, clubs, events, friendships and festivals than more traditional ones.

Consciously or unconsciously, this curiosity has probably got me and Amplify to where we are today; and in all likelihood will take us to wherever we go tomorrow.

So in 2019, as in previous years, my resolution is to continue to find people fascinating, to make new friendships and connections, to actively listen and to give conversations the time to see where they go. Because when you make that face-to-face connection, everything just clicks.