On Wednesday 22nd April, 2020, the Franco-British Chamber held its second web Business Clinic. The event was entitled ‘Being successful in a post-Coronavirus business world’ and was run in association with CONNECTS, the online matchmaking platform that the Franco-British Chamber is proud to exclusively moderate in France.
We welcomed Joost Visser – Managing Director and Founder of TIAO and CONNECTS, and Karolina Vainilkaite – CONNECTS Communities Developer, to explain more about the platform and demonstrate how it can best serve companies, particularly in these challenging times, as well as give a tutorial on how to use it. Leila Lunguleac-Bardasuc, who joined the Franco-British Chamber after discovering CONNECTS, then shared her experience of using the platform.
The big picture:
Joost opened the webinar by discussing the current situation and the challenges that companies are facing.
- He shared his view that success in these times isn’t just based on being the strongest or biggest company, but it is those that are the fastest to adapt to these new challenges that will thrive now and in the post-lockdown world.
- He said the business world has changed dramatically within the space of just a few weeks, with many employees having to learn to work from home, whether or not they had ever done so before.
- He brought our attention to Zoom, for example: before the lockdown they had 10million subscribers; now they have 200million. It is likely that Zoom and similar platforms will now be a prominent feature of many more people’s work as we look to the future.
- He explained that this is not a time to be opportunistic, but it is a time to build your brand and, most importantly, to build relationships so that companies are well poised for the world post-lockdown.
- He also stressed the importance on chambers of commerce, and the translation of these organisations into a trusted online place to do business with the CONNECTS platform.
Tutorial:
Karolina then led the group in a tutorial of how to use CONNECTS.
She took us through every aspect:
- editing your profile;
- finding partners and contacts;
- creating business opportunities to share with other users.
Case Study:
Leila Lunguleac-Bardasuc then explained her success stories from using CONNECTS. She joined the chamber whilst working for Arelance, a Spanish technology consultancy company.
She explained her favourite features:
- the trusted nature of the companies as they are all verified by chambers of commerce;
- the simple direct messaging option;
- the fact that the platform now operates in several languages.
She explained that the platform now forms part of her daily working routine and has been very helpful for targeting new markets.
The event finished with a Q&A session where participants could pose their questions straight to those that know the platform the best.
If anybody missed the event and would like to find out more about how to use the platform, please see more information here, or contact George O’Leary, France’s only CONNECTS moderator, on business@francobritishchamber.com .
