Global Networking for World Leaders

Back in 2005, while I was researching for my first book ‘A Girlfriend in Every City’, I also read a Belgian reference book called “De Elite van België” written by Jan Puype, a journalist I recently met face to face in Antwerp.

This book was a summary of all clubs and networking organizations in Belgium at the time of writing. What fascinated me was the fact that it wasn’t limited to the typical Chamber of Commerce and Rotary kind of organizations, but Puype also disclosed a lot about more upscale organizations (e.g. De Warande, Cercle de Lorraine, … ) and even the more secret organizations like Masonic Lodges.

A few weeks ago I posted this movieclip about the Bilderberg group on my Facebook profile.



The Bilderberg group is probably the most top level networking group you can imagine, bringing together world leaders, statesmen, industry leaders and important international stakeholders.
The Bilderberg group was founded by the Dutch Prince Bernard in 1954, at Hotel Bilderberg in Oosterbeek (NL). This year the group gathered in a totally shielded and highly secured Hotel resort in Sitges (Spain). I’m not 100% sure if it’s true, but it’s said that Belgian Minister of State Etienne Davignon is now chairman of this group.

Each time this elite networking group gathers, there is a storm of protest from people who think this group is trying to create a new World Order, pulling the strings to every single government worldwide.

Another group which is accused of the same activities is Skull and Bones, founded at Yale University (Connecticut USA) in 1832. Only 15 new members are carefully selected each year during what they call ‘Tap Day’.
Although this group is covered in even more secrecy than the Bilderberg group, it’s well known that lots of Presidents and statesmen are members (e.g. George Bush, John Kerry, …)

For those people who think networking is not important or just a total waste of time, it might be stimulating to think about how our world is being managed through top level networks such as the two which are mentioned in this blog … probably there are many more !

The Facebook 5000 friends limit

This weekend I ran into the Facebook 5000 Friends limit. In the last couple of weeks I had been receiving warnings because my friends-count together with the Pages I liked was already over 5000 and Facebook wants you to keep below that number.

The reason for this limitation according to Facebook is that nobody has 5000 real friends in life. If you have more connections you must be a celebrity and in that case you need a fanpage where your network can just click on a Like button to enter your network.

Nowadays newbies can opt to not have a personal profile and immediately choose for a Facebook Page (Some Belgian politicians did this recently). When I became a member of Facebook a normal user-profile was the only option available.

So the best option for me today was to start a Facebook Page, next to my profile ... and open the door for the next part of my large network.

Of course I can't do this without making a few humble suggestions to Facebook

- Get rid of this 5000 friends limit. Almost all online networks allow you to have as many connections as you want, they make sure that no tools are available that would allow to spam the whole list. I have over 20000 connections in my network, gathered over multiple online and offline networking groups. I'm only allowed to to let 25% of them connect to my Facebook profile which is weird !

- Why not offer an easy and userfriendly tool to transform your Facebook Profile into a Facebook Page ? Now I have to maintain and update two different pages on Facebook which doubles my time efforts

Anyway... as from now it's no longer possible to connect to my Facebook Profile, but feel free to Like my Facebook Page :-)