synagogue

On Wednesday, a celebratory afternoon was held at the Alytus Audiovisual Arts Center – business relations club “BNI Alytis” invited business representatives of the Southern Lithuania region to meet. The initiative was successful – more than 100 representatives of businesses and municipalities gathered not only from Dzūkija, but also from Vilnius, Marijampole, Kalvarija and even Šiauliai.

Such an event is unique not only in Alytus, but also in the whole of Lithuania. The BNI club, which operates in various cities, usually organizes business contact forums among club members, and “BNI Alytis” invited businesses that are not yet members to present themselves.

“The essence of this event was to build bridges and expand connections. It’s nice that we succeeded in this – everyone was very happy to have made contacts, made new acquaintances”, smiles the president of BNI Alytis, Inga Stanevičienė.

The mayors of Alytus city, Alytus district and Lazdija district also took part in the event.

“Healthy competition is very good, but sometimes I miss a real and sincere desire to build bridges. Not to fight, not to show off, but to unite and cooperate. Therefore, I thank “BNI Alytis” for this initiative”, said Alytus District Mayor Rasa Vitkauskienė, who together with her team presented business development opportunities in Alytus District.

The event partner, Alytus City Municipality, Mayor Nerijus Cesiulis and his adviser Saulius Ivoška also spoke about how to cooperate, what the self-government could help, and what the city’s strengths are.

Ausma Miškinienė and her team not only congratulated the gathered, but also rejoiced at the great opportunity to grow and expand the circle of contacts, which they invited to invest in the Lazdija region.

Later, the participants of the event continued their introductions – according to the tradition of BNI business clubs, each of them had the opportunity to briefly introduce themselves in 30 seconds and talk about the business they represent, and to announce what contacts they are looking for, and maybe share recommendations.

With cups of coffee and tea, not only the heads of huge businesses, but also tourism representatives, electronic store owners, software developers, construction experts and leaders in many other fields were walking around the hall.

After the official introductions, to the sound of the songs of Eglė Malinauskienė from Alytis and the group “White Rose Band”, business representatives engaged in the most important purpose of this event – networking. Informal acquaintances, sounding recommendations to each other, ending with numerous exchanges of business cards, became proof of the success of this afternoon.

“BNI Alytis” representatives are already saying that this is definitely not the last such event. Even during the event, a common idea arose to establish closer relations with the businessmen of Druskininkai – they are separated by so few kilometers, but the bridges with the resort’s businesses have still not been built.

BNI has been operating in Lithuania since 2014, currently the BNI community in Lithuania consists of more than 1100 members, and there are more than three hundred thousand members in the world.