Why We Sponsor TradeTech Connect

Why did you choose to sponsor TradeTech Connect?

Joseph: We’ve sponsored TradeTech in Paris before, but not the connect event. This event is significantly intimate, a lot of prioritisations on 1-1 connections and good, free-form and lengthy conversations with delegates.

We’ve found this event very unique, niche and sophisticated, which allows us to have longer discussions with delegates. Whereas the larger expo-style conferences tend not to really get into much depth in the conversation with people, we prefer this event.

How have you found the quality of delegates on-site?

Isobel: They’ve been relevant to us and have been super interesting. You get quite a significant cross-section of how people approach the industry. There’s a real opportunity to learn a lot of the different ways that people go about their business, which is super useful.

Joseph: You’ll see the same job title, similar firm style but completely different attitudes to design issues. It does feel like a lot of the delegates are very open to learning new things. I know a lot of them have found that previously they thought they had to accept certain issues as the cost of doing business, then through these meetings with vendors, they start to realise there’s more ways to address and get around their issues than they thought. It feels like everyone is here in the spirit of innovation which is great.

How have you found the networking opportunities?

Isobel: They’ve been very helpful because everyone’s very open to having a long, meaningful conversations - everyone is interested in innovation, technology and hearing how other people are approaching things or what you have to offer. It’s very nice, there’s a good atmosphere.

How many meetings have you had?

Joseph: We’ve had six or seven.

Isobel: Yes, plus then a couple of longer chats during the networking sessions, so overall maybe 10 conversations. We’ve currently arranged two follow-up meetings and had a few who thought our solutions would be useful, so have promised to put us in contact with the relevant people. It’s very hard to organically meet this number of people and have an open, frank discussion in the wild, so it has definitely helped speed up the meeting process.

Joseph: The attendee profile information really helped us structure the initial dialogue, and it’s helps to know what business challenges we’re aiming at.

Have you managed to attend any of the sessions?

Isobel: Yesterday, we managed to jump on one or two sessions in-between meetings, and today we attended the opening sessions. They’re very interesting because while not all of them might be relevant for our business in this case, it’s very interesting to understand what people’s priorities are in the industry and get a feel for how people are reacting in the rooms. It’s something that you can’t easily get a feel for when you’re just trying to do your own research. Even if one of the panels is not as relevant for our business, it is still very relevant for our understanding of the industry and where companies are prioritising.

How would you rate the organisation of the event?

Isobel: It’s really nice, the event team have been really on top of the meetings and been proactive in reaching out to make sure that everything’s working for us.

Joseph: It feels like there’s an awareness of the sponsors and delegates. The event team are very good at brokering the right meetings, the right connections and sometimes giving both sides an indication of what they should be getting back.

Isobel: Yes, everyone in the TradeTech Connect team are very proactive about making sure the sponsors are getting their meetings in and that we are finding the time useful.

Do you see sponsoring having a positive impact on your business goals?

Isobel: It’s certainly been very helpful for our understanding of how we want to address our buy-side and sales targets next year. It’s really helped in narrowing down the delegates topics of interest so we can take that and use it going into next year.

Joseph: I think it will have a positive impact and the model is great. You actually get to have these 1-1 interactions, which means it’s not just a brief connection you have to follow up on, we can get a bit of a deeper discussion and sense of what they’re trying to achieve.

Do you plan on sponsoring TradeTech Connect in the future?

IsobelYes, it’s been really positive, so the take back to the marketing team will be positive and then we will go from there!