A couple of months ago I wrote this blog: Why Dry Events are a Marketers Dream. My logic was that networking should be a space for everybody, a place to go and meet our target audiences, customers or clients, referrers and anybody else of importance to our business and / or career. Events should also be inclusive, although they can of course also be selective.

Why alcohol-free events?

I wondered whether, by often hosting events that revolve around or include alcohol, hosted in venues where alcohol is present or where it is sold on premises at different times of the day, we marketers might be guilty of excluding a significant number of people that we could instead be building relationships with. And by extension failing to be inclusive.

As a sector, the legal profession isn’t perhaps known for its sobriety (when it comes to the demon booze at least) and my thinking turned to whether, in fact, I was missing a trick with my own events. Given that we are often perceived as a boozy profession, this means that it is quite likely that there are many of us who don’t, can’t or won’t drink on an enforced or selective basis. And of course, many people don’t drink for religious or cultural reasons, or simply choose not to.

There are naturally many and widely varied reasons for not drinking, and movements like Dry January perhaps provide insight into the fact that for some people, not drinking ‘for a whole month’ might be an issue. Dig a little deeper and I’m sure there are people who simply can’t risk being around alcohol.

Stopping to think about how alcohol has become and remains a social lubricant led me to consider whether there are any events that cater for the non-drinkers in the sector. To be honest I couldn’t find any. I’m sure breakfast seminars and conferences probably don’t feature alcohol for the majority of the time, but that’s not really the type of event that I mean.

Introducing NetworkingAF

All of this thinking led me, probably quite naturally, to decide to create my own alcohol-free networking event for lawyers – and NetworkingAF was born.

To be clear, NetworkingAF isn’t about being judgy about drinkers or alcohol. You don’t have to be alcohol free to attend, nobody needs to share their alcohol status or reasons (if any) for not drinking – although feel free to if it’s important to you. This is an inclusive event for all the right reasons.

NetworkingAF is just one of a series of ongoing events. Sponsored by the newly created Law Firm Supplier Network, it forms part of a calendar of events aimed at collaboration within the sector.

Not all Law Firm Supplier Network events will be alcohol free, and not all events will look the same. But for now, the focus is upon creating peer-to-peer networking opportunities for lawyers and senior employees of law firms. Because the events are currently funded by law firm suppliers (including LexRex), we are intentionally limiting suppliers in attendance to those supporting the events. See below for a full list of the NetworkingAF partners.

We may run a Meet the Supplier event later in 2025 to enable lawyers to meet and mingle with suppliers to the legal sector – and if this is of interest, please confirm here (please only provide responses if you are a lawyer or law firm employee).