“We have given work to three solution providers and have ongoing discussions with six more. We have spent over USD 400,000 so far. Having face-to-face meetings at the Summit made them far more likely to be successful. We receive dozens of emails and calls every day and it’s difficult to sift through the noise,” said Christopher Soderman, Director – Transmission Lines Engineering, Eversource Energy Services Company, a delegate at the Marcus Evans Transmission & Distribution Summit.
We made good contacts that led to real possibilities. Around a third of our one-on-one meetings led to follow-ups. Three have resulted in actual work, and we have ongoing discussions with five or six more. We have spent over USD 400,000 so far.
The Summit also helped us fully vet out an option we had been considering for a valve control system; that was also valuable.
We had seen emails and brochures from one of them but had never met anyone. Another contact was not necessarily new but our discussions at the Summit triggered some work. The rest were new to us.
Us utility engineers get so many calls and marketing emails about a gizmo or magic formula that can extend our facility’s life by 100 years. It’s frustrating as we don’t know what has potential. There’s no interaction. I need the chance to ask questions to get to the next level of understanding. How would it fit into our system? You cannot move people with an email. When we meet their folks at the Summit we can get an interactive experience. Face-to-face communication is absolutely crucial. Email is a static document that is best used after you have met someone in person. Cold calls and emails are so frequent and don’t carry much weight.
A face-to-face meeting is not guaranteed to lead to a business relationship, but it will certainly make it far more likely to happen. The format is very effective. We get many meetings done in just a few days.
They are very valuable for strategic planning. The quality of the attendees and presentations is very high. Staff are very knowledgeable. It really helps when we have people guiding us along.
The app made it easier for us to keep track of our schedule. It gave us the most up-to-date information of our one-on-one meetings. Our itinerary was all laid out. It was awesome. I found it very helpful. The fewer things you carry around when you’re going in and out of meetings and collecting brochures, the easier it is. Your phone is always with you. The app tells you where you need to go next. If a meeting gets cancelled or changed, it gets updated. It is always the best source of information and very useful during the event.
Find out more about the next Transmission & Distribution Summit