Assignment-20A-Growing Your Social Capital

1) One person must be a domain expert in your industry: Johnny - ( Early 50's - Full-Time worker   - College graduate )

• Who they are and what their background is: Johnny is a current manager at a movie theater close to my hometown. He has been a close family friend to my parents. He went to The Citadel and majored in business administration.
• Which 'slot' you are filling with each person (i.e., domain expert, market expert, supplier), and how the person fills the spot: Johnny is filling in the slot of the domain expert and he fills this role by already having experience and authority from his career in the choice of business I plan to proceed with.
• A description of how you found the person and contacted the person: He has always been a close family friend and he was only a phone call away to get some useful information about how he runs a theater.
• The nature of the exchange you have with the person -- what favor did they do for you? What is the return expectation: The nature of the conversation was very friendly. I asked him for a favor and for some feedback that relates to his career for my school project and he agreed to help me out. The return expectation maybe a favor for him down the road, but knowing Johnny, a simple thank you might be the only return expectation he would be looking for.
• How will including this person in your network enhance your ability to exploit an opportunity: Including Johnny for my network will definitely enhance my ability to exploit an opportunity because that is a tie to a professional in the same industry and his experience lead me toward the right direction in what I want to do for my theater.

2) One person must be an expert on your market: Jesus (HEY-zeus) ( Late 40's - Full-Time worker - College graduate )

• Who they are and what their background is: Jesus is a marketing rep for a movie theater that one of my friends use to work at. Jesus has been working for this movie theater since he graduated from UCF where he majored in educational technologies.
• Which 'slot' you are filling with each person (i.e., domain expert, market expert, supplier), and how the person fills the spot: Jesus is filling the slot of the marketing expert. Jesus fills the position by his current work in the career he is in at the movie theater.
• A description of how you found the person and contacted the person: I was stuck on the marketing expert section for a while because I had no contacts or even an idea of someone to fill this spot. I called a friend of mine from community college and he said there was a guy named Jesus who was a marketing rep and gave me his information. I contacted him letting him know that I got his information from an employee and was strictly calling for advice in regards for a school project.
• The nature of the exchange you have with the person -- what favor did they do for you? What is the return expectation: The nature of the exchange went very well and it was quite professional. He did a favor by helping me understand the terms of marketing in the ways a movie theater does things to succeed. The return expectation may be future help with his career or a possible negotiation if my business opportunity goes according to plan in the future.
• How will including this person in your network enhance your ability to exploit an opportunity: Including Jesus in my network will enhance my ability to exploit an opportunity in the movie theater industry to where I can recognize specific marketing tactics that any movie theater may use to attract customers.

3) One person must be an important supplier to your industry: Antwon ( Early 30's - Full-Time worker - High School graduate )

• Who they are and what their background is: Antwon is a full-time truck driver for a food vendor supply company and consistently stops at numerous movie theaters in the state of Florida. Antwon was a good friend of mine in high school and never had any aspirations to go to college, but knew he had to work if he wanted to make it okay in this world.
• Which 'slot' you are filling with each person (i.e., domain expert, market expert, supplier), and how the person fills the spot: Antwon is filling the slot of the supplier in the way he makes deliveries to the type of business I want to pursue. 
• A description of how you found the person and contacted the person: Antwon has always been in my contacts on my cell phone and active on social media since high school. It was easy to reach out to him and pick his mind about some things on my business/opportunity and it was definitely something he didn't expect to hear from me about.
• The nature of the exchange you have with the person -- what favor did they do for you? What is the return expectation: The nature of the conversation was pretty easygoing and Antwon for the most part gave me his opinion on the way things are being ran at a movie theater nowadays and how things are constantly changing to adapt around the new age of customers. The return expectation might be future business with his company and also access to my movie theater down the road.
• How will including this person in your network enhance your ability to exploit an opportunity: With Antwon working in the truck delivery industry and including him in my network, he will surely enhance my ability to exploit an opportunity based off his opinions and experiences in working with movie theaters. More specifically the concessions concept of the theater.

Reflection: This experience absolutely gave me a good idea of how networking goes on in the business world. I think it was a good experience and provided me with good exposure of what to expect in future networking events. This certain networking experience differed from past ones because in the past I wasn't making connections for a school project. I was more in ways of trying to seek a job rather than a future investor/partner.