Columbus marketing playbook: The Best Networking Groups in Columbus Ohio (A Marketer's Honest Review)

Kind: captions Language: en Most networking groups in Columbus will not move you forward an inch and probably are not worth your time, but a handful of them will. And after several years of attending damn near all of them, I'm going to tell you in this video which ones are worth your time and which ones to skip. What's going on, friends? If you're new here, my name is Andy Milligan. I'm the founder of MMG Design Studio here in Columbus, Ohio. I run a small freelance marketing and web design studio right here in the city and I've attended just about every event you've ever heard of. In my first year as a freelance marketer in this city, I was able to make $200,000 of topline revenue. And that's not to toot my own horn. It's just to show you guys that I have been out and about and I've managed to meet enough people and add enough value to other businesses that I feel credible enough to make a list for you. I serve as the VP of membership at the AMA Columbus chapter. And I am also the founder of the Columbus Marketing Organization, which is my own group mastermind community for freelance marketers, but that's not even going to be on this list, so I'm not biased. Needless to say, I've sat in all the rooms that I'm about to take you to today. By the end of this video, you'll have a short list of networking events and groups in Columbus that are actually worth your time. Ranked by the ways I would rank them as a freelance marketer getting started, trying to hit the pavement, and get some clients of my own. In this video, there are 19 groups bucketed by the categories they actually fall in. Some are chambers of commerces, some are local business networks, and others are in the tech and startup scene. So, depending on your clients and the type of businesses that you work with, you can go ahead and skip to each of those three portions in the video. So, without further ado, let's dive on in. Section number one is the chambers of commerces. As a quick intro, chambers of commerces are geographically based. Usually every major city or subity suburban area has one. There's one in Warthingington. There's one in Dublin. There's a bigger one in Columbus. Kind of a collaboration aggregation of all the three. But depending on where you live, that's going to inform whether or not you should join. So number one, the Columbus Chamber of Commerce, the big dog. I was a member of the Columbus Chamber of Commerce for 2 years. And if you're going to join a chamber, this is probably the one I would recommend. It's by far the biggest one. It's got thousands of businesses within it. And if you are a freelance marketer, there's going to a lot of there's going to be a lot of businesses that need help. A membership gets you a dedicated account manager, which is not common among chambers, and it gets you access to events that aren't publicly listed on their website. If you're brand new to freelancing, maybe skip this cuz it's a very competitive landscape. Smaller chambers and more tighter connections are probably going to give you better ROI off the bat. Which leads us to number two, which is the Westerville Chamber. The Westerville Chamber is a very small but tightlyknit group. They often have free events. It's a very active community and Westerville is just one of the best suburbs in all of Columbus. If you're just getting started and you live or work on the north side of Columbus, I would he highly recommend giving this one a shot. Next up is the Worthington Chamber, which is the slightly westward friend of Westerville. Worthington, again, one of the best suburbs in Columbus. It's a growing ecosystem, a growing chamber. Highly recommend you check this out. I've been to two or three of their events and have had nothing but positive experiences. Number three, I alluded to it earlier, is the Dublin Chamber. Dublin, I would say in 2026 is growing the most. They have a lot of early morning events. They also have happy hours in the evenings, and they do a lot of stuff that's actually within the city, similar to the Columbus Chamber. If you live close to Dublin, this one's definitely worth a shot. The verdict for Chambers as a whole, though, stick with geography, start small, and if you see good results in your local chamber, then maybe upgrade to the Columbus one. Okay, on to section two. I'm calling these local business referral networks. The first one in this category is called connected networking group. Now, if you're very new to networking and just trying to meet as many people as possible, connect is going to be a great one for you. They have a lot of small events. A lot of people are newbies there, too. And it's really good to get out of your social element and get good at explaining what you do. It's a very most stakes environment. Connected is actually built specifically for small startups, freelancers, small businesses. They host a lot of co-working events, um, mixers, things in the evenings, and things that are very laid-back. The next one is Innovate New Albany. And I'll be honest with you guys, this is one of my favorites. There are a lot of credible highcaliber business owners that attend these things. They have they have lunch and learn workshops, also have evening events, too. They actually just relocated to the Brick House Blue in New Albany. It's a very nice environment. It's a very great co-working space, and it attracts good people. Most of their lunch and learn events, they call them tiger talks are free. Shout out to Neil who runs these and has been the awesome community member that he is. And if you're a freelancer Columbus, I've met a lot of really good referral partners here. Yeah, Innovate New Alb definitely worth a shot. Next up is Amspirit Business Connections. There are multiple chapters of these all across Ohio in the Midwest. I was a member of the Dublin chapter for almost 2 years before finally realizing that it wasn't the best for my business. But if again you are just getting started, it's a really good area. It's kind of like a BNI in the sense that each of the chapters you go every couple weeks you'll be putting out a presentation. They call it a 30 secondond commercial. You get to present your services, maybe a case study, something that adds value to the group. And there it's also good because there's only one category of service providers for each group in each chapter. So, for example, if you are a freelance marketer, you'll be the only marketer service provider that's at your chapter and there's less competition that way and it's easier to get clients. If you already have a big network and you know a lot of people, it's going to make it easy for you to give referrals to some of the other business owners that are there, which if you do, it's a good place to be. But if formal referral groups, again, I always recommend you try them at least once in order to just cut your teeth and get good at explaining what you do. That's a huge value in this stuff. But if formal referral groups make your skin crawl, might want to skip it. Next up is Columbus Young Professionals or CYP. I joined this when I was 23 years old, so I technically was a CYP, but don't let that name scare you guys away. It's not. They call it CYP just cuz it's a brand name. You don't have to be under a certain age to join or go to the workshops or the panels. My friend Dara Casey, shout out to her, is one of the biggest marketing leaders in Columbus. She has a great newsletter, by the way. Host some really awesome panels with marketing leaders here in Columbus. Technically, I think the guideline is to be under 40, but if you just want to stay up to the scenes, talk to some younger people, get a sense of the job market as a lot of people are entering. Few groups in Columbus are this diverse and have a event schedule roster like this. They're always consistent. I think they have multiple per week. So, definitely check out their website if you want to get out and about. Next up is H7. I have been to two of these events. It's a co-working space and community here in Ohio. Networking here usually happens pretty organically and I would say if it's most similar to one on this list, it's probably Amspirit. It's structured pretty similarly in the fact that they go around the circles you introduce who you are, what you do, and you get to meet other business owners. And I will say too, just as a caveat to all these, it's always a good activity to be in a place where you're meeting other business owners. As a freelancer, every business needs marketing and it's up to you to carve out a niche and add value to a specific client type over time. But again, if you're getting started, you don't know what that client type is. So, you're trying to meet as many business owners as possible, saying yes to a lot of things. And this exposure is good to start with. Next up is the DEC or the Dublin Entrepreneurial Center. This is located in downtown Dublin. It's a really big building. Uh they fund some startups that go into that space. So again, a lot of business owners in this place and some really larger, even funded and ventureback companies are within this building. Um, it's also a co-working space. So again, a lot of businesses come through here. They have accelerator programs, panels, and other things that happen on the weekends too. And again, similar to the Dublin Chamber, hire Romans if you're closer to Dublin, Ohio. Now on to section three, our final section. This is the tech and startup bucket. Columbus, Ohio is one of the best scenes in the country for startups and the events that back that up are completely up to that caliber as well. If your clients are in tech or if you have a network that's already within tech, these are going to be for you. Ohio X Morning Tech. Ohio X has a really good conference. I think they take place in the summer. I can't remember exactly. They have a monthly breakfast for tech professionals and it's a really good creative event. Attracts a really good crowd. There's a lot of funding that's going into tech these days and especially in Columbus. So, it's always good to potentially rub shoulders with people who are funding these companies or on the lookout for the next big idea. And at these breakfast too, they always establish a core theme. So, sometimes it's AI, sometimes it's machine learning, sometimes it's, you know, changing developments of topics that as marketers it is helpful to know about for our clients. If you're a marketer in tech, which I think a lot of us are these days, then this one's a great place to add to the list. Next up is Techlife Columbus. Techlife Columbus has meetups, workshops, and social events for the entire tech community. It is on a scale, it's a little bit less formal than Ohio X. Ohio X is kind of the not the gold standard, but I would say it's kind of the industry standard. And then Tech Life is sort of more startups, more beginners. And again, it still attracts a lot of business owners, but it's more the early stage crowd. Great for casual relationship building. Again, less structured, less educational, but the idea with a lot of these is to curate an event of like-minded people. So, I would still say this is worth adding to the list if you're in tech. Next up is Startup Columbus. Startup Columbus is a more of an online community and not so much. They do have Inerson events, but they're not as frequent. But, Startup Columbus is a great ecosystem where they have funny announcements, pitch competitions, and ecosystem news that are most pertinent to the Ohio Tech community. I would put this one on the back burner if I were you guys for now, but there's always going to be more competitive places to put your time for now. So, bookmark this. Next up is Product Camp Columbus. Product Camp is an annual conference for product managers. As marketers, it's always good to know product managers are either really good referral partners or the potential ICPs depending on what kind of marketing that you do, but I've always had a good experience at these events. Next up in section three is Rev One Ventures. Revlon Ventures is is one of the best VC firms here in Columbus aside from Drive Capital. Um they're one of the venture capital startup firms and also have the co-working space here at Columbus as well. As with anything in Unicorn and startup investing, it's useful if you're building something fundable or if you have a client to know someone here. But for most marketers, it's more of a top level awareness play. And if you can manage to get a funded client from here, that's honestly awesome. But it tends to be a pretty safeguarded environment. So, keep this one on the back burner for now. Section four is media and civic. These aren't networking events per se, but they are a good place to find other influential people in Columbus, which it never hurts to know. Number one is Columbus Business First. You probably know them as a media outlet, but they also have events, awards ceremonies, and panel discussions that tend to bring out some pretty heavy hitters in the Columbus ecosystem. If I were you, I would head to their website and bookmark and waste one of their events. I do think they're paid, but I would recommend going to one because it is worth it. Next up on this list in section four is the Columbus Metropolitan Club or the CMC. Of this entire list, this is the one that I have not actually been to, but I've heard good things from mutual connections. It's a weekly lunchon forum on policy things that are happening in Columbus and a good place to stay in touch with everything that's going on. The downside with these, again, not marketing centric, but the upside with this is they are people. The people that are coming to this thing are people that you would want to know. As with most networking or events, gatherings where you're meeting people, it's slow burn. It's a long-term play. So, don't let that discourage you from showing up in the first place. Our fifth and final section I'm calling specialty. These don't really fit into any of the first four categories, but they're still ones to keep on your radar. Number 18 is purpose jobs. Uh, I had a call with Hannah Slover, who was the lady that was running this, and I'm still on her email list, and they're still hosting events. So, they still have an active community, but they essentially are a talent marketplace for purpose-driven companies, startups, nonprofits, etc. If you are on the job hunt, if you have an inkling to maybe want to work in house and freelancing isn't for you, or if you are freelancing, still a good place to go. Um, it's Russ relevant for pure networking, but again, knowing more people is the main goal here. Last one on the list is the Parables and Created Conference. I think they've since rebranded to be just created connections or CCU. And the Created Conference is an annual event for Christian entrepreneurs and creatives. If you are religious or if you are of faith, they have a couple small group meetups. They have one in Worththing, one in Clintonville, Worthington, and I believe they have one in Grand View or German Village, one of those two. uh head to their website to check out which of their created coffees that they have. They have them very early in the mornings at 8 a.m. But the conference is a good one to to come to. I believe it's in Polaris, Ohio every year. This one is a good one for marketers because it's a lot of creative a creative agencies that go there. I went to two of the conferences and I enjoyed that. Met some really good people. Shout out to Jeremy Slaggel and Joe Depawitz, both guests of the podcast that I really enjoyed tiding with. and one of the and some of the creative leaders in Columbus are always at that conference. So, that was quite the list. Like I said, I've been doing this for a long time and I just wanted to run through and give the TLDDR of all of them just enough so that you can make a decision on your own, knowing the clients you serve or where you sit at and your current uh career level. Like I said, falling from job seeker to being super niche and tight on the clients that you serve. Now you know, now you have an entire radar of what's out there and a firsthand account of all of them. I'll end with a few tips for these events. Go ready to talk to people. There's a version of this where you go to networking events, and I have definitely made this mistake in the past where you pay for an event or you go and you drive a long way and you just aren't feeling social and you don't get as much out of it as you could. Networking events, social events, conferences, things like this are very much you get what you pay for. So get uncomfortable, get talking to people, smile, have awkward conversations. I promise you and my bank account and my business can verify it is very much worth it. Now, since you're watching this video, you're probably a Columbus-based marketer or freelancer looking to get more clients and grow their own business. I'll be hosting CMO events here shortly, so stay on the list for that by subscribing in the description below. But if you want to keep watching, check out this video right here where I go through my entire first full year of making 200K as a freelance marketer in Columbus. Everything I did, how I generated leads, conferences like this that I went to, what I did, the things that I said, and that'll be very helpful for you. Thank you for watching. Again, I'm Andy Milligan, and I hope to see you again soon. Cheers.