I was skeptical when I first heard that British Airways had chartered a plane so that 250 entrepreneurs could use the seven-hour New York to London flight to network and get expert advice from business leaders.

Sure, the company had done it last year as it launched the Face-to-Face global entrepreneurship conference aiming to bring American entrepreneurs to Britain and beyond—with 600 people on three separate flights—but surely lightning wouldn’t strike twice. I was wrong. Not even five minutes after the fasten-seat-belt sign went off, this bunch was up and walking about the cabin. Even the self-proclaimed social wallflowers in the group got in on the action, talking in the aisles and lining up to speak to Rhonda Abrams, bestselling author and founder and CEO of The Planning Shop; Steve Strauss (who led several panels on global business planning the day before); Rich Sloan, founder of StartupNation; and Sam Horn, who was helping people hone their pitches to potential investors, partners, and clients.

I was seated behind Abrams in seat 2A, part of BA's newly redone first-class that allows for business travelers to hold one-on-one meetings right in what we all called the "pod," and met a lot of her advisees. She used the time in the air to run mini strategic-planning meetings with every entrepreneur that stopped by her seat. “It’s so rare that entrepreneurs can take time out of their day to get objective advice about their business,” she said.

Abrams’ approach was to listen first, ask questions second, and then offer up her critique. “It’s easier for me to let them know what works and what doesn’t because it’s not my business, so I don’t have blinders on that sometimes people do when they’ve been working on getting something off the ground.” She heard business ideas that ranged from a solar-powered flashlight created by an ex-CIA operative who’s breaking into the Africa market, to a rug seller who exports her handwoven and hand-loomed designs to the Middle East, to a branding expert who at 30-years-old already has clients around the world, to a hand-tool manufacturer going to China for the first time in her life.

Thea Marx, one of the entrepreneurs aboard needed advice on her upcoming pitch to Michael Ward, the buyer at London’s world-famous department store Harrods. “I represent artists who create housewares, apparel, and jewelry that all has an Americana theme. But no one here is interested in these products. Outside of the U.S., the market for what we call Western is huge,” she says.

When Marx was done with Abrams, the two of us sat down and ended up interviewing each other. While I asked about her road to big retail, she asked about my retail background, and before I knew it, word spread on the flight that anyone with a lifestyle, retail, or social-media business should come talk to me. Somehow, the reporter had become the one answering questions.

The idea to network at 35,000 feet evolved organically out of last year’s flights. “We didn’t know what to expect when we took off last year, especially since it was a red-eye. We couldn’t believe that each of the three flights turned into a major networking event,” says Simon Talling-Smith, British Airways executive vice president for the Americas. “When we asked the entrepreneurs how we could improve the program for this year, they told us to plan for the networking, so we made the flight a daytime one so that they would have maximum time to work the aisles.”

And work they did. The only break we—Abrams, Steve Strauss (who led several panels on global business planning the day before), the BA executives, the other entrepreneurs, and I—got, was a 10-minute one when brunch was served. But as soon as the plates were set down on our trays, the conversations resumed.

Besides having the entire group head to London on the same flight, another calculated change was making the pool of networkers smaller. “Last year, since we had flights out of Los Angeles, Chicago, and New York, we found that the people who came through together stayed together. We wanted to increase the interactions and make them more meaningful, so we were more selective in our initial call for entrepreneurs and put them all on the same 747,” says Talling-Smith.

The eclectic mix of people also meant that the on-board entrepreneurs could convene instant focus groups and get real, honest feedback on their products and services. Jason Solarek, who owns a branding company that helps retail entrepreneurs get more online exposure in virtual stores, held court at the entrance to business class and literally stopped people to talk with them as they walked by. He would then introduce them to others nearby and facilitated meetings between at least 20 people during the 15 minutes I spent with him. Solarek made such an impression on the British Airways execs with us that they jokingly offered him a job as a flight attendant should he need to supplement his income.

With all the interactions going on, I asked a handful of the flyers if they felt they made real connections with people and whether they think that those would stand the test of time. “I met with one person who earlier in the day had talked to a distributor and he’s connecting the two of us,” says Marks. “Living in Cody, Wyoming, I never would have met these two.” And apparently some deals were done on the flight as well. We’ll be checking back in with some of the flyers throughout the year to see how much of an impact—if any at all—this program had on their business.

If Eric Hansen’s experience is any indication, it can do a lot. A participant last year, he’s now onto his second venture and spoke to the new batch of London-bound entrepreneurs the day before we left. Hansen, who is searching for clean-energy alternatives to gas, praised the program for executing on its vision of getting American small-business people out into the world.

“I started this as a grassroots movement, but with the flights that I was able to take through this program, I have clients in countries I never thought I’d visit,” he says. “And it’s catapulted my companies onto the global stage. I can compete with the big guys now.”