Our readers' network, the company of friends, is expanding throughout the world. So where is our biggest cell? The home of Broadway, the Yankees, and deli corned beef on rye -- the Big Apple! The person helping the CoF make it in New York is cell coordinator Patricia Barrett, an executive recruiter who signed up in March.

'Fast Company is the gathering point for progressive businesspeople -- the avant-garde,' Barrett says. 'It's an extraordinary group, and I wanted to be involved in it.' The group had its first meeting last April. Since then, it's grown to 425 people; more than 50 'regulars' attend bimonthly meetings. 'It has been difficult to pull this off,' Barrett admits. 'But I took a leap of faith. Can you believe that -- in New York?'

From: November 1998 issue