The Swedish networker

Nationality: Swedish
Age: 37
Position/Activity: Founder of Fryday Kyiv networking club and Coffeenar Ukraine
Length of time in Ukraine: Two years
Tips for succeeding in Ukraine: “Play the network, understand what people like. Don’t be shy. What you want is nothing bad – just talk to somebody. Have some small talk. That is a good start of relationship”

Anders Ostlund arrived in Kyiv two years ago with only a few acquaintances. Then he hit on a novel way to meet new people – by organizing networking events.

Ostlund, a 37-year-old Swede who runs human resources firm Stella100, launched the “Fryday Kyiv” events for professionals after finding that Kyiv had none of the “meet-new-people” bars that he used to frequent in his home country.

“Every Friday I used to walk a couple of blocks [from work] and go in one of five different bars. Without any special arrangements it was where you met on a Friday night. The kind of people that went there were well-educated professionals: lawyers, bankers, finance people, government officials.

Just to hang around, have a couple of drink, catch up, meet,” he recalls.

That description pretty much sums up the crowd at the networking events that take place on Friday evenings in classy bars, nightclubs and restaurants. The events now regularly attract around 500 people looking to establish new contacts for business or fun, or just socialize with people they know.

The gatherings started out much more modestly in April 2010. The first networking meeting, arranged by Ostlund and fellow Swedes Gustav and Ulrika Hultgren, brought together 17 people in the lounge bar of Avalon nightclub.

“In the beginning we had a majority of foreigners. But five, six events later in September we were 100 people, and the majority were Ukrainians. That’s how it has been ever since. Maybe 70 percent Ukrainians and 30 percent foreigners,” he says.

The most recent Fryday at Premier Palace Hotel this month gathered around 500 people. The event seems to be popular and trendy, with its LinkedIn group having more than 4,000 members and Facebook page the same number of likes. More than 16,000 people are in the Fryday database.

To join Fryday events you just have to come to the place announced on the Fryday LinkedIn Group and Facebook pages. There is no membership or entrance fee. There is no loud music disrupting from conversation. Everybody is welcome.

Ostlund says he focuses on picking the right places for his event. “We want people to move freely around the room. We take chairs and tables away and create an open area with easy access to the bar. [We want] lounge music that doesn’t interrupt conversation and service to be rapid with people able to get their drinks fast,” he says.

Ostlund describes Fryday Kyiv as a “hobby project” that doesn’t bring him any profit. Nevertheless, the project is sponsored by a whisky and vodka brand.

This April Ostlund started a new business venture with Belgravia business club – two-hour Coffeenar seminars. He got the topic for the first one from discussions in Fryday Facebook and LinkedIn, where people told they were uncomfortable with networking.

“The penny just dropped and I thought: OK, I know something about it. From all the things I tried in my life, networking is the one I am pretty good at,” he says.

Kyiv Post staff writer Kateryna Panova can be reached at panova@kyivpost.com