IABC Café

Earlier this month I attended the National Association of State Procurement Officers (NASPO) conference in New Orleans, LA. I took advantage of my visit by meeting with several local IABC leaders. I met with the IABC New Orleans board members who were busy planning their new media conference for May. I had dinner with Jeffrey Ory, ABC, APR of Deveney Communication and our 2008 Gold Quill chair. And, immediate past IABC New Orleans president, Belinda Lazaro joined me for French Martinis (my new favorite beverage) and a fabulous dinner at Café Adelaide and the Swizzle Stick Bar.

I applaud the commitment of these leaders for their commitment to rebuilding the chapter following Katrina. And I applaud the chapter members who – based on my conversations with the leaders – continue to hold the chapter accountable, relevant, and fun!

It is appropriate and meaningful to me that I started my year as IABC chair in New Orleans. I’ll always have a special place in my heart for IABC New Orleans.

The NASPO conference gave me an experience that caused the gears in my communicator’s mind to spin. The purpose of this annual conference is to provide vendors and opportunity to meet with state government procurement personnel and learn how to become “preferred” vendors of or improve relationships with state agencies. The opportunity to meet with state government procurement personnel was accomplished with “speed dating” for speed pitching.

A large ballroom was set up with café-sized tables with two chairs at each table. I and the state procurement representatives sat at our assigned tables with our schedule for the day. At the precise time scheduled, the doors to our left opened, and in walked – almost ran – corporate sales reps pitching the broadest range of products imaginable.

Some pitches involved piles of marketing materials, while others involved an exchange of business cards. Some pitches were developed, rehearsed, and delivered, while others started with broad questions such as “how can I help you?”

After ten minutes, a buzzer would sound and the sales reps stood, shook hands, and exited through the doors behind me. After a ten minute break – to make sure all sales reps had exited the room – the doors to the left would open and the sea of sales reps would rush in for their next pitch.

My first thought was “what an excellent way to briefly meet vendors and identify who I wanted to continue discussions with during the networking and evening off-site functions.” Kudos to the NASPO conference planning member who took the speed dating concept and gave it a business purpose.

My second thought was “wow, some sales reps really need to learn how to effectively communicate the value proposition of their products.” And then I thought about a couple of the questions that I ask during my networking and personal branding presentations: How do you communicate your value proposition when you introduce yourself to other professionals or prospective clients? What about you or your introduction to professionals and prospective clients gives them reason to remember you?

With the IABC International Conference in New York City just around the corner, I envisioned a ballroom filled with café-sized tables and two chairs at each table. A personal branding coach is seated at each table. At 9:00 a.m. sharp, the doors to the left open and in rush conference participants to make their pitch to their designated personal branding coach. Ten minutes later, a buzzer sounds and the participants rise, shake hands, and exit through the doors at the back of the room …

What would the personal branding coach have to say about your pitch?

This entry was posted on Wednesday, April 23rd, 2008 at 12:07 pm and is filed under General. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.