Communities

ASCENT Foundation launched its Bangalore chapter on 25 February. As a seasoned ASCENTer for the last 12 years and a Governing Council member, I attended this event with an interesting speaker lineup. The JW Marriott banquet hall was jam-packed. We had to add many chairs at the last moment, yet few attendees watched the event while standing.

I want to share an interesting backstory here. My Trust Group at Ascent is ARISE, and we lock our monthly meeting dates six months in advance. Our monthly meeting for February was scheduled for 28 February.

I have not been to Bangalore for the last 15-16 months. Hence, I extended my stay to meet with other friends and colleagues. Excited to meet so many interesting people, I quickly booked my five-day stay and flights accordingly.

In that excitement, I forgot I had to attend my Trust Group Meeting on 28 February (my return flight is on 1 March). I have an excellent attendance record except for missing only two monthly meetings in the last 12 years, and I didn't want to miss this meeting.

According to our group guidelines, I must convince ALL members to agree on an alternative date if I do not want to miss the meeting and change the schedule. With all members being busy entrepreneurs, aligning their calendars at the last moment was a herculean task. Due to this rescheduling, I didn't want someone else to miss the meeting.

Hemen Ruparel wasn't available until 23 February, when he attended Gulfood in Dubai. Dr Rajesh Doshi will be unavailable from 1 March until 10 March, when he attends a trade show in Hong Kong. I was travelling on the 25th morning for the launch event.

The only day available for the meeting was Monday, 24 February. My nine other Trust Group members are so fantastic that they changed their Monday morning schedule to accommodate my request. We had that meeting on 24 February between 8:00 am and 11:00 am.

I had to return this favour. I gifted nine copies of Harinder's fascinating book "Psychology of Marketing" (founder of another amazing marketing community, 10Xer Club).

Communities like ASCENT, 10Xer Club or TLC - Teaching Learning Community are great places to build your knowledge repository, bounce off your ideas with like-minded people, and build a sense of togetherness in this increasingly lonely world.

Which communities are YOU part of? Let me know in the comments.