Making the Right Connections.
No Longer a Game of Chance.
What does it cost a business to get the necessary exposure and benefits from attending the many relevant functions around town? Some companies thrive on doing this networking themselves and are happy to pay the price. However, many companies cannot afford to have their key staff out of the office often enough to gain valuable contacts and information for their business. Then there are the few businesses that just cannot see the value of networking at all.
In any given year there could be as many as two or three pertinent conferences, at least a lunch a week, and a plethora of evening functions available. Each one of these events has a 50/50 chance of being relevant. But how do you know what is relevant? Can you afford to make a mistake?
A fabulous opportunity for family businesses, for example, was the Family Business Australia National Conference in Adelaide last year. The conference was packed with presentations by experts; shared experiences with other family businesses; and plenty of delegates to meet and network with. Not all the sessions were relevant to all the delegates and certainly not all the delegates were ideal new contacts for everyone there. But it was an extremely well-run, interesting and relevant event for those involved in family business.
But what about the business who didn’t attend? Three days is a long time away from the office; August is a busy time; there is another conference on; the list of reasons why someone cannot attend a function is endless. Did the business lose out by putting its priorities elsewhere? The answer is potentially, yes. Enter the business ambassador.
A business ambassador works closely with the client to ascertain the business’ needs, works out what functions are relevant to the business, and attends them on behalf of one or more clients. “It is a perfect way for me to be in more than one place at one time” says Mark Bergin, managing director of theWEBSQUAD, who uses an ambassador to spread his company’s presence. “And I don’t have to be an expert in which events to attend.”
The best connections are sometimes the most unlikely.