TEN Magazine

4 Today, the 30-year-old go-getter owns and runs Today's Executive Network (TEN) — a group of 1,300 executives and business owners who take networking to a new level, bonding over unique shared activities, and forming close business relationships in the process. "I've been an entrepreneur for the last 15 years, and one thing I've always struggled with is finding the right network to get involved in — where people are doing more than just handing out business cards and trying to sell their products and services," Buhler says. "On LinkedIn, I found this group called the Manitoba Executive Group and the whole purpose of it was basically business owners and executives sharing business and ideas and I thought, 'Finally, this is exactly what I need.' " Well, not exactly. While the group had 40 to 50 members online, there was no offline activity. A year after he joined, the organizer invited members to a lunch and networking event at a South Osborne bistro. Only a handful of people attended the lunch and, a month later, Buhler was the only member to show up at a planned breakfast event. Something had to give. After the organizer transferred the reins to Buhler in January 2011, he decided to plow his marketing budget into revitalizing the group. "I basically started cold-calling people and invited them out to this brand-new executive networking concept. I actually rented an old nightclub downtown. I had food brought in, we had bartenders, entertainment, that sort of thing, and we ended up having 80 people show up," he says. Unlike typical business events that follow a networking session with a sit-down speaker program, the event was strictly about networking, and several guests approached Buhler to ask when they could expect a repeat. Quality Connections TODAY'S EXECUTIVE NETWORK (TEN) MIXES BUSINESS AND PLEASURE S oon after starting up a new software company in 2009, entrepreneur Glen Buhler was looking for a productive way to expand his business network. What he found was a group that held promise, but had little concrete value. So he did what entrepreneurs have done since the dawn of time — he reinvented it. Today's Executive Network (TEN) owner Glen Buhler (above left and opposite page), with driving instructor Noah Falk and the High Performance Driving Experience rides — an Audi R8 supercar and a Porsche 911 Carrera. Photos by Darcy Finley TODAY'S EXECUTIVE NETWORK

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