For more than 4 years I’ve been attending an event I consider unmissable: Expomanagement.
The event is held at the Palacio Municipal de Congresos in Madrid at the end of May.
During my time at Regus, I convinced the Marketing department to take a stand in 2006 and it paid off handsomely. We got back in touch with existing clients, mainly key accounts, we made contact with potential clients who had never heard of us, and we even closed several office and meeting room rental contracts.
What can you find at Expomanagement?
The event centres on a congress with gurus from the worlds of management, innovation, strategy, marketing and leadership, attended by around 3,000 people.
This year the speakers were:
– Rudolph Giuliani & Crisis Management. How to lead in times of crisis.
– Bill George & Management. How to lead in critical times.
– Paul Schoemaker & Managing in times of uncertainty
– Kenichi Ohmae & Strategy. A new strategy and a new strategist.
– Anders Knutsen & Marketing. How to achieve top-level positioning: brand and design.
– George Kohlrieser & Leadership. How to become an effective and inspiring leader: a different path.
– Mario Alonso Puig & Talent Management and Human Potential
– Fabio Capello & Teamwork. How to create a winning mindset in any circumstances.
Then there’s the exhibition area, where companies whose target audience is executives have their own space to be in touch with their clients or potential clients.
Finally, there’s the conference programme, which is a big draw because it also brings in excellent speakers on the hottest current topics, and attendance is free thanks to the sponsors.
This year, now at XING, my marketing colleague also saw the value in taking part as exhibitors, and we were next to the FNAC stand.
I was invited to a round table in the conference programme and, to top it all, my book El poder del Networking (“The Power of Networking”) was on sale in the FNAC bookshop.
What networking did I do?
- I contacted potential clients who didn’t know XING
- Existing clients came to see us
- We spent time with some of our VIP users
- I got back in touch with former colleagues from XEROX and REGUS
- I also got back in touch with former Regus clients
- My relationship with existing clients who were there grew stronger
- I networked with some of the conference speakers
- And the essence of networking: I made new contacts