Last week, I attended a conference to share the story of South Downtown Atlanta. This wasn’t the typical startup or tech conference I’ve been to hundreds of times over the years, so it was particularly interesting to meet new people and hear new stories in the retail and placemaking world of real estate.
Upon arriving in the hotel lobby, I was given the traditional conference badge. However, there was something unusual about this one. On the back of the name badge was a handwritten Post-it note listing six or seven people I should seek out and meet at the conference. I hadn’t seen this before and immediately thought, “What a great idea.” The main goal of conferences is to learn, grow, and meet new people. Often, it’s a hit-or-miss process, trying to find people with relevant experiences, complementary offerings, or interesting projects.
Conference curator Eric Weatherholtz used his extensive relationships and knowledge of who’s doing what, why, when, and where to play matchmaker by providing a personalized list of people for me to meet. Considering there were 200 to 300 attendees, a significant amount of time and effort went into this process. Eric and his team’s efforts paid off, and the conference was a huge success.
Entrepreneurs would do well to organize their own conferences, industry events, or customer meet-ups. As part of hosting these events, take the time to formally play matchmaker ahead of the event. Think through the potential relationships and connections attendees should make, and use the event to ensure they maximize their time. Make personalized badge named intro Post-it notes part of the conference experience.
Entrepreneur
via https://www.aiupnow.com
David Cummings, Khareem Sudlow
