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printaction.com September 2015 · PRINTACTION 11

DeVelopment

Speed networking at PackExLooking at the effectiveness in new forms of networking to determine how professionals are connecting to develop businessBy Victoria Gaitskell

W ith today’s limits on staff, time and resour-ces, both exhibitors and visitors are seeking a return on the invest-

ment they make (financial and other-wise) to attend trade shows. One reason is that electronic media provides a host of other effective and often less expen-sive ways to launch, demonstrate or re-search new products; train sales reps and resellers; generate leads; and brand a company strategically in a competitive space. Consequently, participation in major industry trade shows is no longer universally regarded as essential to these important business functions.

A year ago, when I interviewed Rafael Peñuela Torres, Chief Executive Officer of manroland Sheetfed GmbH in Offen-bach, Germany, who said: “I think it’s time to rethink the role of trade shows. To keep repeating the same thing we have done for the last 50 years is the wrong response for an industry that has changed dramatically over the last 10 years for both customers and manufac-turers. I personally believe we have too many exhibitions around the world, and that they need to come up with new concepts to change the way they operate. I don’t know what they will be, but how strongly we participate in trade shows in the future will depend on how strongly we believe in these new concepts.”

Over the past few years, the printing industry has seen significant growth in technology suppliers producing their own trade shows and conferences. Esko in June ran its 23rd EskoWorld event featuring more than 70 educational ses-sions. In January, EFI hosted its 15th Connect user conference in Las Vegas, which drew approximately 1,500 atten-dees from 25 countries, described as a 20 percent increase over the previous year. HP’s successful Dscoop group, which is run by an independent body of HP technology users, draws thousands of

printers to events held around the globe. All of these vendor conferences feature partner pavilions, small equipment showcases of third-party technologies that might normally be considered as competitors. The biggest draw to these events, however, is the unique ability to network with other like-minded printers from different regions.

This networking ability is one of the main reasons why I continue to attend trade shows, with the amazing efficiency of being able to meet face to face with a large number of targeted people, all in one place. Typically my approach is to maximize this opportunity by research-ing the exhibitors in advance, as well as any new developments they may be presenting, and the demographics of the visitors who typically attend the show, including their business activity, job titles, and decision-making power. (My sources for this kind of information in-clude exhibition organizers, trade asso-ciations and clients.) Then I set up ap-pointments in advance with the specific people I particularly want to meet, so that I do not waste too much time on browsing, small talk, and chatting with old friends, rather than focusing on meeting the people most likely to help advance my current goals.

In hopes of expediting this networking process, I registered for a 75-minute Speed Networking session scheduled among various other free, value-added events on the expo hall floor of PackEx Toronto. Held for the 37th time from June 16 to 18, the show bills itself as

Canada’s longest-running national packaging exhibition. I discovered an interesting approach to develop new business connections.

Mechanics of speed networkingAlthough by now a recognized business practice, Speed Networking is thought to derive from Speed Dating, a system of romantic matchmaking that operates along similar lines, supposedly begun in Beverly Hills by Rabbi Yaacov Deyo in 1998 (at least, if you believe Wikipedia.) By contrast, Speed Networking is in-tended to accelerate introductions, which in optimal scenarios turn into mutually useful working relationships.

Although Speed Networking can oper-ate in a variety of formats, the PackEx session, facilitated by a Chicago company called SpeedNetworking.com (founded in 2001), gave each participant a printed schedule for a series of 10 six-minute, one-on-one meetings at numbered sta-tions where a new acquaintance was scheduled to appear each time.

Typically in the allotted six minutes each pair exchanged quick summaries of them-selves, their companies, their goals, and what they hoped to achieve from the meet-ing, along with contact information and whatever further discussion time allowed.

Most importantly, as part of online pre-registration for the event, partici-pants were asked to fill out a brief mul-tiple-choice questionnaire with their own business profile and the type(s) of indi-viduals they wish to meet. The profiles were then matched electronically to gen-erate a schedule of meetings for each participant based on these preferences. With the demographics of PrintAction’s readership in mind, I basically indicated on my pre-registration questionnaire that I most wanted to meet people who were directly involved in the design and manu-facture (preferably printing) of packaging.

SpeedNetworking.com’s Website ex-plains: “Our smart-matching software enables participants to pre-select the types of people they are interested in meeting, which is based on customized matching parameters put together by our clients. We take the guess-work out of networking events and determine the best possible connections for each person to make. For instance, if you meet 20 people in a room full of 100 possible connections, you could potentially meet 20 irrelevant contacts and miss out on meeting the RIGHT people. SpeedNetworking.com gives event planners the ability to run a TARGETED networking event that is contingent upon the preferences for each participant. We substantially increase the odds of meeting the RIGHT connections.”

Elsewhere, the company’s Website confirms that its proprietary software is

PackEx took place in toronto in late June, featuring an hour-long session on speed networking.

50Number of participants needed for an effective speed-networking event, which borrows from the speed-dating model developed in the late-1990s by Rabbi Yaacov Deyo..

12 PRINTACTION · September 2015 printaction.com

capable of matching pairs based on a variety of criteria, depending on whether the desired matches are between peers, vendors and pros-pects, mentors and mentees, or prospective employers and job seekers.

Targeting was essential at PackEx, since California-based show organizer UBM Canon staged it at the same time and in the same location as five of their other exhibitions: PLAST-EX (for the plastics industry), Design & Manu-facturing Canada (for design en-gineering), ATX Canada (for automation technology), plus two new shows called PBS Toronto (for powder and bulk solids) and Qual-ity Expo (for manufacturing quality management).

My speed networking experienceIt turned out that, although all my meetings proved interesting and enjoyable, the five scheduled matches I met did not all derive from my targeted fields. They in-cluded: • Greg Mais; Sales and Marketing

Manager at San Chung and As-sociates Inc., a supplier of pre-press and in-the-round plate-making services for the flexographic industry.

• Bohdan Dolban; President of Botama Holdings, a packaging sales agent specializing in metal and plastic packaging for liquids and solids, including pails, drums, bottles, pumps, sprays, and po-lybags.

• Fernando Kapelusznik; Regional Sales Manager at Cavotec Can-ada Inc., a supplier of automation, assembly, electronic, and indus-trial engineering products and solutions.

• Steven Wexelman; VP Sales and Marketing for Flamesoft Systems Inc., a Web-based, hosted trans-portation-management software system that facilitates shipping by third parties and customized warehouse controls.

• Antonio Rodricks; Outside Sales Representative for Laird Plastics, whose products have a wide range of applications, including signage and displays.

My remaining five meetings were with random substitutes, promptly assigned by SpeedNet-working.com’s on-site Event Facili-tator, Shalom Klein, whenever a person I was scheduled to meet failed to show. The substitutes were:• Kevin De Vos; Outside Sales

Representative for Laird Plastics

(see company description above)..• Michael Robev; an engineer who

helps Canadian companies out-source their manufacturing needs to Bulgaria.

• Peter Pfingst; Managing Director of Air Cargo Solutions Limited, who is seeking opportunities to apply his expertise to the pack-aging industry.

• Alain Cubric; Engineering Prod-uct Analyst at 511 Food Service, a co-op student from the Univer-sity of Toronto’s Engineering program, presently engaged in product testing.

• Chris Armstrong; of Origination, a consulting business that helps companies reduce their energy costs.

At the end of the full session, Klein announced a total of 48 people had participated, although his company’s Website specifies 50 as the minimum number of partici-pants needed for an effective event. I wonder how many other partici-pants experienced my same rate of 50 percent no-shows, despite SpeedNetworking.com’s autoreply to pre-registrants that cautioned:

“Your participation is critical to this event, as each schedule is custom-ized and no-shows will leave your conversation partners without someone to meet. Please do not skip this event.

I am optimistic that the session would have yielded matches closer to my goals if more people had participated. Perhaps this outcome will occur eventually as Speed Networking becomes more main-stream in Canada.

Until then, it seems I’ll have to continue to rely on my customary do-it-yourself networking ap-proach. As SpeedNetworking.com’s Website points out and re-search by the Harvard Business Review confirms, “Networking continues to be one of the most powerful tools to create and sustain successful business relationships.” And – provided you are operating on an effective advance plan based on solid research – when it comes to trade-show networking I still believe in Woody Allen’s dictum that 80 percent of success is show-ing up.

ViCtoria GaitsKell is a seasoned journalist, who has extensive printing industry experience having

worked for human resource firms and associations tied to the sector. vgaitskell@gmail.com

With all the recent acquisitions Annex

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