Building a network in a new country is a long process. When I moved to the UK and settled in the Chester area, I tried everything, and most of it did not work the way I expected.
What I tried
Meetup groups first. One accepted me and then required a membership fee to keep networking. A second turned me down because I did not yet have a business registered here. Reasonable rules, but a closed door when you are new and have nothing to show.
Then LinkedIn, where the Chester area turned out to be small enough that the network ran out quickly. Then conferences, where for about a year I did not find anything genuinely technical or marketing-focused near me.
Why the obvious routes fail
Every one of those routes assumes you already have something: a registered company, a local reputation, a budget, an existing circle. When you arrive without those, the standard advice to “just get out and network” quietly excludes you.
It is the same reason I tell people to get a job first if they are starting with nothing. Contacts and credibility are built somewhere before they can be spent.
What actually worked
Being useful to people with no expectation of return. Turning up consistently. Eventually building the room I could not find, which is how our own events and the founder group started, and why I believe community is about value rather than size.
The other thing that worked was going to people in person rather than waiting to be discovered, the habit behind visiting businesses instead of calling them. Small generous acts compound in ways you cannot plan, which is exactly what happened with a shared hotel room in 2013.
If you are building something here and want an honest conversation about it, book a call.