About Schmooze

Based in Australia, Schmooze was established in 2003 by its founder and owner, Phillip Jones who is a Canberra social entrepreneur, with the idea of fostering collaboration between professionals and making the life of the city more accessible. It has since evolved into one of the most innovative and dynamic professional and business communities in Australia.

We're not your typical networking group, but rather use the ways and means of networking to foster great connections, inspire our members and guests, and aim to create opportunities for them.

The atmosphere is welcoming, personalised and sophisticated and purposely informal to make it easy for people to connect.

Through wide program of workshops, informal networking functions and seminars, online forums, and services, it brings together people in a welcoming atmosphere that cuts across industry sectors in a collaborative manner.

We also support our community through supporting the arts, charities and social ventures and provide a neutral environment that enables synergies to be fostered between individuals and groups, and through joint initiatives.

Schmooze also provides a platform for its members to promote their own events and expertise, as well as provide a range of services to facilitate introductions and targeted business development opportunities, but all done in a personalised manner. They can also leverage our range of online communication channels including social media. You can meet our Melbourne team here, and our Canberra team here who support our members.

We also support local charities through a variety of ways, such as having a featured cause of the month.

Our philosophy is outward looking and collaborative - so we often work with many other organisations like Canberra Business Point, Lighthouse Business Innovation Centre, the Australian Institute of Training and Development, the University of Canberra, Social Ventures Australia, or the ACT Government's Live in Canberra campaign, Business.gov.au and more.

Please contact us for a personalised consultation on how we can assist you in furthering your career, professional or business goals.

More Information About Our Program and Membership

In 2010 we hosted over 80 events with some 1800 people attending in Canberra alone. The events ranged from intimate dinners and lunches, seminars for young professionals, to cocktail functions for over 100 people. In addition, we promote events hosted by our members such as training courses, wine tastings and networking events.  

You can attend most of our activities for a casual fee ($55) but our members can attend our events at no charge, as well as take advantage of our unique range of services, business referrals and get advice from our team on how best to make the right contacts and promote their events, expertise or products

• You'll find our events calendar here,
• An outline of our regular events is outlined on this page. 
• You can view past issues of our weekly e-news (and subscribe)
• See a profile of our membership here
• To find out about membership package options please see this page
• You can view footage of past events on our Schmooze TV page and our Facebook page.