Why you should attend mixers …

April 20, 2010 by Dave Haynes

Richard Fortin is the president of ITES Media, a Montreal software house that does digital signage but is mostly focused on kiosks.

He sent me a nice note yesterday, running through how making the time to come to a Toronto event led to him expanding his business.

One year ago, I was in Toronto on April 14th, 2009. I was attending my first Mixer, and I remember it like it was yesterday,” he writes. “When I arrived at the Six Steps Restaurant around 5:30, Dave Haynes was already there and after saying Hi and welcoming me, he asked me a question.

“Richard, are you going to be the 300th digital signage software player coming in to Toronto to do business in digital signage in general, or are you the one company who wants to do digital signage in Real Estate in Toronto.”

I answered. “the company who will make business in Real Estate in Toronto.”

“This first mixer was very beneficial for ITESmedia. All the folks over there were so great by introducing people to myself. I recall, Lyle Bunn and also Dmitry Sokolov from Ingram Micro. Dmitry was so nice that night by introducing to me several integrators. That night I met with M. Peter Rutkauskas, this meeting would be a first step to our success story.”

Fortin has put his real estate digital signage/kiosk software in more than 200 installations in Quebec, and working with Rutkauskas – who formed his own company Impact Digital – has now done the first of its kind in Ontario, up in Peterborough. The install, in a new wing of a mall in the city north of Toronto, allows people to come in and use touchscreens to find listings and accompanying photos. The software maps to Re/Max and MLS data.

I know I have got jobs for people through intros at the mixers, and more than a few business relationships have developed between companies and people. One of my busier pressDOOH clients came from a mixer chat.

So … next one is tonight in Toronto. It’s fun. There’s drinks. And people are doing business.

Note: ITES does me a favor and hosts Sixteen:Nine.