A Lansing networking event. Seven years. Coming back.
Most networking events have an agenda.
Someone speaks.
You sit. You listen. You get a name badge and a lanyard and a folder of things you'll never read.
Someone sells.
Usually from a podium. Sometimes from the back of the room. Always at you.
The Drinking Lunch
No agenda. No speakers. No pitches. Just the right people in a room together — third Thursday of every month, 2 to 4pm, at a Lansing brewery.
I built it because I wanted a room worth being in.
No agenda, ever
The only structure was a start time and an end time. What happened in between was up to the room. It worked because people could actually talk.
The right room
Small business owners, real estate professionals, developers, photographers, executives, nonprofits, creatives. Lansing's working professional community — not a single industry, not a single type.
Seven years
From 2015 to 2022. Monthly. 50 to 150 people per event. One Christmas, an international opera singer showed up and sang carols. That was about typical.
People never stopped asking
The Drinking Lunch went quiet when the pandemic and the closing of AKEA consumed everything. The community didn't. People still ask when it's coming back.
The honest answer is: I'm working on it.
The relaunch is something I want to do right — not just open the door and see who shows up, but rebuild the room with the same intentionality that made it work the first time. When it's ready, you'll hear about it here first.
If you want to be on the list when it comes back — reach out. That list is already forming.
Be in the room when it comes back.
The list is already forming. Tell me you want in, and you'll be among the first to know when the door opens again.