The 9th Annual BNI Director Conference will be held in Ottawa, Ontario May 5-6, 2006. All BNI members are encouraged to come to the Members' section of the conference on Friday morning May 5th. This event will feature presentations about referral marketing from BNI talent across the continent.

The members' workshops will be held at the National Arts Centre just across from Parliment. For details contact Jocelyne D'Aoust email bni@bnieast.com

BNI members were busy recognizing the most notable members in Galas and parties across the country while the Directors participated in staff training days

in Montreal, Toronto, Vancouver and Victoria.

Rolling into the New Year, members are productively networking at ski days and large multi chapter events not to mention the results oriented weekly chapter referral sessions.

2006 is shaping up to be a very active year with serious business relationships being established among the members resulting in significant new business transactions.

When you have a chance, review the member testimonial section of the website www.bnicanada.ca to see what members are saying about BNI. To get an idea about the events across the country, review the Events Section on the website. BNI members are not waiting for business, but rather creating quite a ‘buzz’ by going after business found within their respective networks. 

BNI is updating the download resource section all the time. Be sure to take time to review new materials on referral marketing. The reason BNI provides a lot of resource material, relevant to referral marketing, is that there is not a lot written or even known about this form of marketing.

While many buyers shop through referrals, and most vendors prefer to have referrals drop out of the sky, very few business organizations – other than BNI – actually produce practical and well researched materials about referral marketing. Some of these resources will be found within the Member's Sign-In section.

BNI Golden Horseshoe Region 2005 hosted its 8th annual Awards Gala Christel Wintels, Executive Director congratulates Thomas Krebs and Deborah Foster-Stahle, as the incoming and outgoing Presidents of BNI Connection Collection Chapter in Mississauga. This chapter was awarded the "2005 Chapter of the Year" award.

  Congratulations to all the members of this productive group!

BNI Central-North Ontario hosted the 8th annual BNI NetSki Day on February 3rd at Osler Bluff Ski Club in Collingwood.  Another sunny day on the slopes was enjoyed by over 50 BNI members and guests from 5 regions in Ontario. Conditions at the hill were excellent and all participants enjoyed the skiing/sliding, the networking opportunities and great food. This region must have good connections with Mother Nature because a few days earlier, conditions were not favorable. But it all came together once again to

 make another successful ski day. 
The date for the 9th annual ski day is already booked for 2007!

Don't miss out next year.

Dr. Ivan R. Misner visited the nation’s capital for the first time on March 2, 2006.  Starting late afternoon, Ivan was interviewed by Louis M. Bergeron of the Outaouais.mag., while phtographed by Roch Givogue BNI member of the Aristôt chapter. At 5 P.M., Dr. Misner was interviewed by CTV and soon after began

his dynamic presentation to nearly 300 members and guests on the topic “Networking for Cave Dwellers”. Ivan's convincing talk focussed on making BNI a part of our marketing strategy and that referral marketing is now a part of the mainstream marketing tools.  The evening was immortalized on film by Richard Houde of Solotech Multimedia, also a BNI member.

The next morning, Ivan was whisked to “The A Channel” and the “Ottawa Citizen Business TV” studios where he wowed yet another audience! After the TV visit Dr. Misner surprised everyone at the BNI 212° Chapter during their regular meeting. Obviously he was asked to give the 10-minute presentation! Next stop was the Courtyard Restaurant in the beautiful downtown Byward Market where Ivan impressed yet another group in an informal question and answer session. 

Denis Brisson and Jocelyne D’Aoust , celebrating their sixth anniversary as directors for Eastern Ontario and Western Québec,  stated that they and the members of the region will have long-lasting and fond memories of Ivan Misner’s visit to their region.

Central East Ontario Region welcomed BNI Director Ron Truman during their BIG BREAKFAST and Member Award Recognition. Ron explained that it is best to not let your clients see what's beneath the surface, or in the back room. The show room is to

display your best programs and services while the back room (below the surface) is for all your trials and tribulations.

The 11th Annual BNI Golf Day is about to come on the scene.
As usual this will be a fun (best ball) scramble, for beginners and serious golfers alike, with trophies and prizes for everybody. The Best of the Best golfing chapter will also be looking to defend their title and retain the annual chapter

floating trophy for the Chapter Team with the lowest score.
Tuesday June 27th. For details contact Steve Lawson 416 410 5461

The BNI Montreal Team pulls a first! Simultaneous translation service was provided for the French speaking members attending the BIG BREAKFAST and Award Gala. More than 260 members came to acknowledge the most Notable Networkers and hear Dr. Ivan Misner discuss the

Fundamentals Of Referral Marketing.

The Derek Podorieszach/Kai Bjorn Team conducted a star-studded outstanding event.

Victoria, BC.
The third Member Recognition Gala was held for a happy group of BNI Brass and Master Networkers on November 25, 2005.The happy Master Networkers all deserve their enjoyment as they were selected from among their peers - by peers.

Kelowna, BC.
February 16, 2006. Seventy five energized people attended Kelowna's newest chapter "The BNI Business Builders". One very serious BNI founding member, Mike Budd, hosted 19 visitors to the event truly showing that networking - not net-sitting - does work. Five new applications were accepted and many others indicated serious interest in the new chapter. Congratulations to Barb Boyd, BNI Director, Mike Budd, the BNI members in the first Kelowna Chapter and all new folks taking a serious look at BNI. This is a record kick off for this region. 

More than 26 Countries host the BNI Marketing System. "Captain Ivan Misner", the Founder of BNI, travels extensivley to spread the word about referral marekting within networks.

Recently awarded the Montreal Canadian

jersey by Derek Podorieszach, (#85 for 1985 founding year) Ivan is not only BNI's Founder but also "Head Coach".

Necessity is a mother of invention and new marketing innovations are needed. More large companies are counting on word-of-mouth marketing to introduce their new products. Apple’s iPod was built on people telling others about the new miniature sound system. The Campbell Soup company seeded the market with free cans of Butternut Squash soup to ‘get the word spread around’ about this new food product.

Other large well known companies such as, Adidas, McDonald’s and Carte Blanche are creating marketing campaigns designed to start a ‘buzz’ going in the streets about everything from shoes to fast foods to new restaurants. 

During the past five years, traditional advertisement agencies are designing new marketing programs labeled as “Buzz Marketing”, “Viral Marketing” and even “Contagious Marketing”. An article in the Montreal Gazette headlined this growing marketing technology as “Whisper Campaigns”. The idea is to create a strategy that gets many people whispering news about hot vendors, new products or quality services to their friends and associates.

Everything in our lives today is faster including the advent of new strategies to capture the millions of buyers hoping to get referred to preferred vendors. Billions of dollars in new business are created annually through referrals, and still, only a few marketing organizations really understand word-of-mouth referral systems. The Toronto Star, in July 2005, suggests that word-of-mouth campaigns are the newest force in marketing and only getting bigger.

As a small start-up company 21 years ago (1985), Business Network International (BNI) started the phrase “WOM” to mean, word-of-mouth marketing. That was more than twenty years ago! WOM now symbolizes the natural merchandising phenomenon of people talking to other people about products and services.

It’s a fact. Most of our best business comes from referrals. People shop for goods and services everywhere and everyday. When someone owns what you are shopping for, it is natural to ask, “Where did you get that”?

From the seller’s perspective, referral marketing occurs when a potential customer is referred to you by a person who knows something about your product or service. From a buyer’s perspective, referrals  are an easy and valuable way to find a good vendor or service provider. For example, how often do you find yourself asking about a good restaurant, shoe store, or dentist? Asking around for referrals is one of the oldest means of finding the right vendor or product.

With so many people asking for referrals, you might think that referral marketing is the preferred means to advertise. But the reverse is still true. Referral marketing, as a codified marketing methodology, is very much in its in infancy.

The reason so few vendors actually market their products consistently through referrals might be related to the scarcity of business courses that teach referral, or word of mouth, marketing even though everyone knows that referrals are the best way to get new business. 

With more than 80,000 members, BNI is the largest, oldest and most sophisticated company to create an integrated system around the natural process of referrals. BNI creates gigabytes of information about this form of marketing in the form of books, audios, articles, blogs and we are even experimenting with new internet formats. Please view, www.bniuniversity.com and sign-in as a guest.