Speed Networking: A Chance to Burst Your Bubble

I've never been one to approach networking with zeal, but at least with the "speed networking" events popular at conferences today you have a definite end point. At the end of your seven minutes, a new person will be sitting across from you and you have another chance to connect on something (a less logistically fraught strategy than a tip I've heard: to always carry two glasses of wine so you'll always have an exit strategy ready - "Oh I have to bring this to my friend!" I could see that going badly, for me, personally!).

At Iconosphere the opening event was a speed networking session, and I came away with a few business cards and some interesting nuggets I hadn't been aware of before.

I met a few employees of Symrise, one of the biggest companies I had never heard of. As one of them told me, "We probably touch your life everyday, from your breakfast to your shower to your dinner and dessert." Symrise makes flavorings & scents which they sell to personal care brands, QSR brands, packaged food brands, alcoholic beverage brands...etc,etc,etc. They do tons of research on the global trends they're seeing around consumers and their senses, and I know I'll be digging through their press releases for statistics and insights I can take back to the brands we work with. The takeaway for me was that B2B companies can be a great source for B2C insight - because they need to show the companies they deal with how they're setting them up to win.

I also met an employee from QVC who works on their e-commerce strategy, and we had a great conversation about the opportunities in that area. We agreed that curation is a way to differentiate from giants like Amazon, who position themselves as "anything & everything." She told me to check out a site she's been keeping an eye on, called Joyus, that artfully curates products based on certain categories, like fitness or beauty, and presents them alongside valuable video content. I checked it out and found myself sucked into the videos and impressed with the site design - it's definitely something I'll be using in future presentations as an example of e-commerce evolution.

Those are just a couple of the interactions I had - not everyone you meet networking will be a home run, but there's always something to be learned from people of different disciplines and from different industries. Since Iconosphere isn't dominated by agencies, it's a good conference for people who want to break out of the advertising bubble a bit.

- Jane Schlech, Knowledge Manager for the SIG Group