Business

Winnipeg Free Press - PRINT EDITION

Centrallia conference like speed-dating for businesses

By: Martin Cash

Posted: 09/2/2010 1:00 AM | Comments: 0 (including replies)

Tom Zaporzan hopes to make some connections at the big Centrallia conference in Winnipeg in October to help him recruit skilled workers from Europe.

It may not be the classic example of the kind of networking that is engaged in at these events, but it is an interesting example of its potential.

"We'd be happy to get some meetings with people (from overseas) interested in becoming customers, but ideally we'll talk to some people that can help us with the recruiting," he said. "We're really not sure who that will be."

The co-owner of a Dauphin metal shop called RITZ Machine Works said that in the past, the company has recruited about five skilled metal workers from Europe to the firm's 20-person shop. But Zaporzan said it's expensive and time-consuming to go to Europe.

He figures Centrallia will be a perfect venue for what they are trying to achieve.

Centrallia is designed around the one-on-one business encounters that are organized by taking into account all sorts of elements to match up meeting partners. It effectively becomes half-hour speed-dating encounters for business people. But while the secret to the success of these conferences -- a French-based organization called Futurallia holds conferences around the world -- is its unique proprietary software that does the match-making, the real attraction is the networking.

Bill Rutherford, a Winnipeg consultant who managed national sales teams for 20 years, said he believes the face-to-face encounter is being under-valued these days.

He's been scheduled to talk to Manitoba delegates a couple of weeks before the event about strategies in making the pitch.

"Much of the communication technology available to us now is driving us to be insulated," he said.

But he argues there is no replacing face-to-face encounters when it comes to understanding who the best partner will be.

Less than two months before the event, organizers at Agence nationale et internationale du Manitoba (ANIM) are hitting their targets in attracting delegates.

Originally, they were talking about more than 500 delegates; now they are expecting between 600 and 700.

Suzanne Druwe at ANIM (the province's French-language export marketing agency) reports delegates will be coming from Brazil, Argentina, Chile, Peru, Colombia, France, Belgium, Russia, Ukraine, Poland, India, China, Algeria, Qatar, Nigeria, Egypt, Ivory Coast and Turkey.

A number of groups from the United States have also confirmed from NASCO (the North American SuperCorridor Coalition), the Minnesota Chamber of Commerce, the North Dakota Trade Office and Cedar Rapids Chamber of Commerce as well as groups from Chicago, Atlanta and Kansas City.

ANIM's CEO, Mariette Mulaire, said every province and one of the territories have delegations attending.

"We have a representative who met with people in Argentina this week and the feedback we are getting is that people down there are interested in Canada and the centre of Canada is intriguing to them," Mulaire said.

With the advance numbers now coming in, Centrallia just needs to make sure it gets the numbers it needs from the local business community. Ideally, about one-third of the total number of delegates should be from the local market.

Zaporzan is hoping the 14 meetings over the two days will yield leads that will help him grow the business.

Rutherford's message is that these kinds of meetings will almost always be a recipe for success.

martin.cash@freepress.mb.ca

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition September 2, 2010 B7

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