Join the club

Want to know how to deal with an embarrassing father? Just ask Euan Blair. Tips on anger management? Naomi Campbell could probably help. What to get Liz Hurley for her birthday? Ask her best friend, Henry Dent-Brocklehurst. A new networking website, Asmallworld.net, is, apparently, for people "who already have strong connections".

More than 4,000 celebrities, socialites and clever businesspeople, including the Prime Minister's son, Matthew Mellon, Will Carling and a bunch of megarich financiers, are all signed up. But with such a high calibre of members, you can't just join - you have to be invited. Another by-invitation-only site, LinkedIn.com, which is hugely popular in the States, is gaining popularity here.

Unfortunately, I'm not invited to join either of them, but at least there are lots of other networking organisations which aren't so choosy. Dinnerpoint.com is one of the latest. It's aimed at business travellers and runs dinners in cities around the world, including New York, Sydney, Paris and Dubai. Instead of sitting miserably alone in a hotel restaurant, convinced everyone is staring at you, you can see which other lonely travellers are in the same city and meet up. It charges a £12 arranging fee for each night and you work out how to split the bill with your fellow diners.

I'm meeting 11 strangers for dinner at Sketch and, after a couple of glasses of wine, my shyness has vanished and I'm happily chattering away to Peter, a lawyer, and Kath, a financial adviser. Most of the people are business types but there is a television producer and an art dealer, too. Ages range from 25 to 52 and everyone lives in London.

The following day, dinnerpoint sent me an email to say someone wanted to contact me (though, annoyingly, it didn't say who). I'm relieved that, even though I was too drunk and spilled most of my dinner down my front, it means I can't have been too annoying. Maybe I'll be invited to join Euan Blair's club now too.