Yes, you don’t need to tell me again, the internet is the future. I am a Social Media Marketing person, I should be counting on this. And yes, there are people who actually believe they can start a revolution with only “like” and “share”. Whether this is or can be true or not, I can’t really take a side at this moment. But what I do know and what I do see, despite all the technology behind virtual environments, is that people still like to meet, still like to shake hands and not just wave and smile in front of a webcam. And this includes business people as well.

This is why we still have those big international or regional conferences, those high level management meetings, the fairs and technology expos, the “x” tech or product days. Because you can shake hands as much as you like 🙂 I’m just kidding a little bit now. The truth is that we cannot be anything else but human beings, whether we talk about our personal life or professional life. And it’s only human that you find communication more natural with a person that you have already met face to face, that you shook hands with or made eye contact.

Don’t worry, I’m not neglecting the marketing or promotional aspect of this sort of meetings. It’s just that this also can be done very well without human presence, so we need to come back, again, to the individual’s social needs. It is fun and interesting to meet new people, to hear other ideas than the ones of your friends and colleagues, to actually socialize in another environment than someone’s office building. And besides being fun, I believe it is also effective, advantageous and closer to obtaining results and being successful. But that’s just me. I like those conferences, I like meeting new people, I like getting involved in various conversations.

I might have presented some ideas on why individuals would like this kind of events. But why would a company? Apart from the fact that it is a group of individuals, who have something to say about this, what are the interests of a company in participating at these conferences? What are the gains for spending notable amounts of money on participation, transport, delegates’ fees and so on?

Well, I can’t talk for all the companies, but I will try to speak a little bit from Allevo’s perspective. Ok, brand awareness is one thing, but that is kind of “per se” when you talk about these conferences, so I won’t really get into it. I wanna touch a different base here.

Is it because we think we’ll have access to the newest information in the market? Is it because we believe we shall get new business ideas or inspiration? Is it because we trust there will be new customers participating? Can we actually control these things? Perhaps not. But what we can control is our persistence, our consistence, our continuous fight to make our work well-known, our trust that what we create can make a difference – ok, not for the greater good, but at least for a small niche of the industry. Something else we can control is the ability to learn from these experiences, to accumulate knowledge and to use the information we gained the best we can.

I have talked to my colleagues on this subject, including my general manager, and the omnipresent impression was: “Yes, I have learned a great deal of things by participating to this kind of events”. And I agree, you do learn, as an individual and as a company. And even what you learn as an individual, if that knowledge is put into your work, is a gain for the company itself.

Another aspect that I would like to touch is the imperative need these days to reach other markets, foreign ones. To expand, to grow. Yes, we are a Romanian company, yes, we made our mark here, in our country, but that is not enough anymore. Not these days. And by participating to these conferences, held all over the world, we can try to achieve that. To let other people, companies, industries, economies know that we exist, that we have something to offer, that we are present.

So… guess what I’m trying to say is that we are looking forward to meeting you at Sibos, SWIFT Regional Conferences, Operations Forums, Remit Business Days, EBA Days, SPIN and many others.

See you there 🙂

By: Ioana Moldovan