Tuesday, June 21, 2011

Catching Up at the 2011 WBENC Conference!

It was great to see some returning businesses from across Atlantic Canada in the in-class training this year which was held in May!  Nice to share in their successes from the last trade mission – the trip to Baltimore for the WBENC Conference in June 2010.  I think that everyone who attended this year walked away with some good information.  Some of the tips in the two-day training program included how to be prepared for such an immense trade show.  You need to put yourself out there – this type of experience is not the time to be a wall flower – meet as many people as you can because you never know where it will lead.  Take a box of business cards with you and make sure they are the right kind of card for this type of trade show.  Follow up immediately after the show with the contacts you met.  

The training program also reiterated that you need to have a plan before you go – who do you want to meet and what is your goal?  If you don’t ask for business, you will never get it.  If you are successful in getting new business from the trade mission, make sure you do a business plan to ensure that you are increasing your bottom line.  It is important to have a foreign exchange plan so you can protect yourself from adverse fluctuations in the dollar.  Really, it’s everything we need to do normally when trying to get new business, just in a much bigger, high-energy atmosphere!

- Shelley LeBrun


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