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Salt Lake County has more networking events than any owner could attend, and most of them are the wrong room for any given business. This guide covers the groups that meet regularly, what they cost where they publish it, and how to pick the one where your customers or referral partners actually show up.
Most Salt Lake County owners network through one of four kinds of groups: the Salt Lake Chamber downtown (its Business After Hours mixer moves between venues around the valley), a city chamber such as the South Valley Chamber in Sandy, the Murray Area Chamber or ChamberWest in West Valley City, a weekly BNI referral chapter, or an industry or startup group. The Murray Area Chamber's Thursday lunch group lists no fee to attend, so it is a cheap place to start, and BNI is the closest thing to a steady referral pipeline for a service business.
The question to ask is who you need to meet. A plumber needs the property manager and the general contractor. A bookkeeper needs the insurance agent and the attorney who send clients her way. A software founder needs other founders and investors. A restaurant owner usually needs neither, and is better off putting that time into the dining room.
Once you know who you want to meet, the choice gets short. Chambers put you in a room with other local owners and the people who sell to them, like bankers, insurance agents and commercial real estate brokers. BNI chapters are built for passing referrals between trades that serve the same customers. Industry groups put you next to your suppliers and competitors. Startup events put you next to founders and the people funding them.
| Group | Where | How it meets, per its own site | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Salt Lake Chamber | Downtown Salt Lake City | Over 150 events a year; Business After Hours at a different venue each time | Firms selling to other businesses, anyone who wants a seat near policy |
| South Valley Chamber | 9800 S Monroe St, Sandy | Monthly networking events | Owners in Sandy, Draper, South Jordan, Riverton, Herriman |
| Murray Area Chamber | 5250 S Commerce Dr, Murray | Weekly Thursday lunch group | Owners who want a low-cost weekly habit |
| ChamberWest | 3540 S 4000 W, West Valley City | Friday Connections speed networking, development series | West Valley, West Jordan, Taylorsville, Kearns, Magna |
| BNI chapters | Across the county | Weekly, one member per profession | Trades and service firms that live on referrals |
| Industry groups | Varies | Luncheons and annual events | Builders, trades, restaurants and their vendors |
The Salt Lake Chamber says it hosts over 150 events, trainings, webinars and conferences each year. Its regular mixer is Business After Hours, which the chamber describes as a member event with networking, hors d'oeuvres and drawings, hosted by a different venue in the valley each time. Its page does not say how often it runs, so check the chamber calendar for the next one. Members can also attend new member orientations, which double as a quick way to meet other new members.
The bigger draws are the annual events: the Utah Economic Outlook and Public Policy Summit, the Women and Business Conference with the ATHENA Awards Luncheon, and the Annual Meeting. The chamber also runs the Business Women's Forum and Leadership Utah, and it lists a Small Business Committee members can join.
On cost, the chamber's membership page lists Executive at $1,500, Bronze at $4,000, Silver at $8,000 and Gold at $10,000, with higher levels priced on request through Heidi Walker at [email protected]. The page does not state the billing period, so ask before you sign. At those prices the Salt Lake Chamber makes most sense for firms whose customers are other businesses: commercial lenders, law firms, IT shops, staffing agencies, commercial cleaning. A one-van residential contractor will usually get more from a city chamber or a BNI chapter.
Most cities in the county do not run their own chamber. They share a regional one, and three cover most of the valley outside downtown.
South Valley Chamber. The old Sandy chamber web address now goes to the South Valley Chamber of Commerce, which lists Sandy, Draper, Riverton, South Jordan, Cottonwood Heights, Herriman and Bluffdale as its cities. The office is at 9800 South Monroe Street, Suite 806, in Sandy, phone (801) 566-0344. The chamber says it holds monthly networking events plus after-hours events, and its packages page lists Business membership at $500 and Non-Profit at $400, with higher tiers up to $16,500. The page does not say whether those prices are yearly. The Business package and up include two seats to its monthly events, which it names as the WIB Lunch, MTM and LDL. If your shop is in Sandy or South Jordan, start here.
Murray Area Chamber. The Murray Area Chamber of Commerce is at 5250 South Commerce Drive, Suite 180, phone (801) 263-2632. Its site lists a weekly Lunch and Learn, Eggs and Issues, MACH Speed Networking and a Women in Business group. Its Meetup page lists the Referral Community lunch on Thursdays from 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. at Red Robin, 316 E Winchester Street in Murray. It says there is no fee to attend; you pay for your own lunch. Each meeting has open networking, a short business education segment and time to set up one-on-one meetings. Of the regular events in this guide, it costs the least to try.
ChamberWest. ChamberWest covers West Valley City, West Jordan, Taylorsville, Kearns and Magna, from 3540 South 4000 West, Suite 240, in West Valley City, phone (801) 977-8755. Its core events are a Professional Development Series, a Women in Business growth series, and Friday Connections, a morning speed networking event run with other chambers. The Murray chamber's Meetup listing for Friday Connections names Murray, South Salt Lake and ChamberWest as hosts and lists the price as $5 for members of any chamber and $10 for everyone else, paid at the door.
The Utah Hispanic Chamber of Commerce lists an address at 7181 South Campus View Drive in West Jordan. It says it holds different events each month, including workshops, fairs and networking nights, and posts them on its Facebook and Eventbrite pages.
BNI works differently from a chamber. BNI's own site says members attend weekly chapter meetings and that each chapter takes just one person from each profession. That means if you are the only roofer in the chapter, every roofing job the other members hear about comes to you. In return, you are expected to bring leads for them.
BNI Utah says it has over 60 chapters statewide, split into BNI Utah North and BNI Utah South. The North region's chapter list includes chapters in Salt Lake City, nine in Sandy, five in South Jordan, two in Murray, and others in Cottonwood Heights, Draper, Holladay, Herriman and Riverton. The meeting day, time and whether a chapter meets in person or online are on each chapter's own page, and the North office takes calls at 801-597-5264 to help you find one. Its site says the best way to find out whether BNI fits is to visit a chapter, so go as a guest once or twice before you apply.
BNI does not post its membership fees on these pages, so ask the chapter before you visit. Also ask how many members it has and which trades are already taken, because your seat may already be filled. BNI suits realtors, mortgage brokers, contractors, insurance agents, financial planners, photographers and anyone else whose customers come from word of mouth. It suits a retail store poorly, because the other members cannot send it foot traffic.
For a trade business, the industry association is often a better room than a general mixer. The Salt Lake Home Builders Association says it has served Salt Lake and Tooele counties since 1946 and has more than 600 members, including builders and the suppliers, lenders and trades that work with them. It is at 230 W Towne Ridge Parkway, Suite 250, in Sandy, phone (801) 748-4134, and runs networking luncheons, Builders and Brewers nights and a golf tournament alongside the Parade of Homes. If you install cabinets or pour concrete, the builders who hire you are in that room.
Restaurant owners and the companies that sell to them can join the Utah Restaurant Association in Midvale (7324 South Union Park Avenue, Suite 201, phone (801) 274-7309). It offers Restaurant and Vendor memberships, lists industry networking as a member benefit, and holds an annual awards gala and a golf tournament with a summer social.
For women in technology, Women Tech Council has a Salt Lake City mailing address and says its network reaches more than 10,000 women and men in tech. Its biggest event is the annual Women Tech Awards.
The state's Startup State Initiative points founders to a short list. 1 Million Cups meets weekly on Wednesday mornings, where founders pitch and get feedback. Third Thursday at Three is a monthly event at Kiln in Lehi with five quick startup pitches and open networking after. The Silicon Slopes Summit is a large annual gathering for tech and startup people, Utah Tech Week packs panels, workshops and a pitch competition into one week each year, and the One Utah Summit gathers business and government leaders each autumn.
These rooms are full of founders, engineers, investors and the lawyers and accountants who serve them. If you sell to startups, go. If you run a landscaping company, skip them.
Most of the work from networking comes from the follow-up, done within a day or two. Write the person's name, company and what they need on the back of their card before you leave the parking lot. Send a short email the next morning that mentions something from the conversation. If they could send you work, or you could send them work, ask for a coffee at their office or yours.
Go back to the same group for at least three months before you judge it. The second and third time you show up, people start to remember your face and what you do. Track where each new customer came from, and after a quarter compare it with what the dues and lunches cost. If one group sent you two jobs and another sent you none, drop the second one.
In a BNI chapter or a chamber lunch, the members who send customers to others are the ones who get customers sent back. And make sure that when people look you up after meeting you, they find something: a current Google Business Profile, a working website and a phone number that gets answered. Our local SEO guide covers the profile.
Networking brings in referral partners and other business owners. It does not put you in front of the households in Sandy or Murray who might hire you next month. For free one-on-one advice on a marketing plan, the SBDC, SCORE and the other offices in our guide to free small business help in Salt Lake City are a good start, and our guide to where to advertise in Salt Lake City compares paid options.
We sell one of those options. The Salt Lake Valley is a free newsletter with about 2,400 Salt Lake County subscribers. If you host a mixer, a workshop or an open house, a featured event listing is $59, a Local Directory listing is $49 a month, and the Neighbor plan, a written shout-out in two issues, is $179 a month. The full list is on our advertising page.