Tokyo beers gardens can be found in parks and on building rooftops throughout the city  and there’s nothing better than enjoying a cold beer, or two, with friends on a warm summer evening in the city. Social and business networking on Tokyo has now been taken to a new level with the creation of the Tokyo Garden Party.

On a sweltering summer day in 2008, two of Tokyo’s up-and-coming creative agencies got together to discuss ways in which to work together. Instead of having the meeting at their office, they decided to rendezvous at the beer garden on the roof of Bunkamura in Shibuya.

“It was such a beautiful afternoon, it seemed crazy to stay inside”, says Wayne J. Moskwa, creative designer at fusionbureau. “For two agencies that specialized in breaking the rules it seemed like the natural place to get together”. Over several plates of edamame (boiled soy beans) and a few rounds of daijoki (big beers), bonds were formed which led to the fusionbureau team taking on the task of rebuilding the SET website and SET putting together an event for one of fusionbureau’s clients.

It worked out so well that they decided to start a networking event between the two firms. Johan Rooms from fusionbureau explained how the original idea was to bring along one or two clients each time and talk and drink together casually about possible collaborations. “We envisioned around 15-20 people getting together every once in a while in the hope of finding some synergy”.

Fast forward to 2009 and Tokyo Garden Party is the talk of the town…sort of. Now getting ready their 4th event, the jointly run networking event is garnering great reviews and a rapidly growing Facebook army. Greg McMaster from SET says they were amazed by the response. “We were aiming for 30 people for the first event, held at Shibuya Bunkamura in honor of the place where the idea first took shape, but we had over 60 despite the dodgy weather”.

The format is fairly loose and there are no guest speakers or presentations.  Rather it is simply an opportunity to get together in a casual open-air setting and talk. The Facebook page says that it is for marketing and advertising industry people but this was only because they didn’t have a wide enough category to cover what the organizers wanted. It is open to anyone either living in Tokyo or visiting from abroad. Basically if you enjoy drinking outdoors, it’s the event for you.

Greg Lane from fusionbureau says the idea was to create something that was pretty much without rules. “We have toyed with the idea of presenters and special guests but we might leave that until the hangover of year one has passed and we start planning for 2010”.

If you want to get more information check out the Tokyo Garden Party Facebook page, visit the Tokyo Garden Party website or follow @tokyobeergarden on Twitter.

Upcoming Tokyo Garden Parties

Thursday, August 13 at 7:00pm – Jingu-Gaien ‘Mori no Biagaaden’ (The Forest Beer Garden)

Join the party by leaving your RSVP on the Tokyo Garden Party Facebook page.

Image Credit: Facebook, Photos from Tokyo Garden Party #2 & Photos from Tokyo Garden Party #3

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