Q1 Client Spotlight: IBC

So, you’ve heard from us why SpeedNetworking.com is so great. Now it’s time to hear from our clients! First up on our client spotlight series is Carrie DeFelice, Director of Operations for IBC, a sales and marketing group in the industrial industry. IBC has been working with SpeedNetworking.com to support its annual conference since 2015.

Q: What prompted your initial interest in SpeedNetworking.com? Was there a specific obstacle you were trying to overcome?

A: “IBC hosts an annual conference where we bring our distributors and manufacturer members together for two days of meeting and networking.

In the past, scheduling the one-on-one meetings was a manual process. What we would do is go out to the distributors, give them a list of the manufacturers that would be attending and tell them to prioritize based on their interests of who they want to meet.

And that was literally done through a Word document. We would send it off to them and they would use a numbering system for their top priorities and we would do the same for the manufacturers meeting with the distributors. They would send all these Word docs back to us. We would then take all the data and put it into a dos based system.

So we would manually enter the data for every company that would then match up based on the priorities. It took forever. It was two days’ worth of manual entry. And the outcome worked, but it wasn’t great. There was a lot of double-checking we had to do and it wasn’t efficient. It was a lot of work.”

Q: How has the SpeedNetworking.com program helped better connect your audience?

A: “It’s allowing each member to have more input on who they want to meet. There’s a mutual agreement on both sides so the quality of the meetings that members are having at our show has increased tenfold.”

Q: What do you like most about working with SpeedNetworking.com?

A: “I think it was our IT manager who came across Speed Networking. And at the end of the day, it’s really their ability to want to work with us. From the start, they were interested in how they could improve the software – what kind of tweaks they could make to make it better for our event.

In the first year, we used the standard out of the box solution, but over the years, we’ve worked closely with Speed Networking to customize a solution that is more tailored to our needs. They have always been willing to work alongside us to deliver a great, user-friendly product.”

Q: Would you recommend Speed Networking to other organizations?

A: “Yes, and in fact we have. We frequently collaborate with other non-competing groups to share best practices for meetings. Speed Networking has been a great partner to IBC and we’re confident in recommending them to other buying groups and association professionals.

Q: What advice would you give to other clients considering using SpeedNetworking.com?

A: “First: know your audience. Second: trust the system, formulas, and all the math. Trust in that. It can be a hard thing. I think today with technology we’re all kind of leary and not always sure if it’s going to do what we expect it to do. So definitely trust the system. But also be mindful of how it’s working for your audience. We have a bit of an older crowd, so we simplified the prioritization process. And that goes back to knowing your customer and the value of the customization options.”

Q: Anything else you would like to add about SpeedNetworking.com?

A: “They’ve been great. They know when to reach out. They have great follow-up. They stick to a plan. When they tell you they’re going to have something for you, they have it for you. Being the event planner for our meeting, it is never something I worry about.

Between Sean and Mike, they are reaching out to me and telling me when I need to get on a call or, “We know your meeting is coming up – we need to do this, we need a time frame.”

IBC’s one-on-one meetings are the hallmark of our annual event. For an event manager, there are many moving parts, and they really take the lead in managing this important process.”

Want to learn more about how SpeedNetworking.com can help better connect your audience? Schedule a demo today!

About IBC

IBC is one of North America’s leading alliances of industrial, bearing & power transmission, electrical, and subassembly distributors with over 400 branch locations and total sales in excess of $2.6 billion.

The organization provides multi-location customers a streamlined, cost-effective, dynamic purchasing source for national and regional contracts. IBC provides its Independent Distributors and Preferred Suppliers with the tools, resources, and market access needed to thrive in today’s competitive marketplace, including a unique collaboration forum. IBC is a Minority Business Enterprise (MBE) certified by the National Minority Supplier Development Council (NMSDC)