Treading new business paths
“The International Engineering Fair in Brno is the most important trade fair event on the exhibition scene in Brno. After a gap of two years the fair could again be held in physical form this year, and with it our traditional Contact-Contract event. The purpose of both events is to help restart the economy, present new technology and innovations for the future, and get acquainted with new business partners. This year’s event was, moreover, again focused on the digitalisation of industry,” says Čeněk Absolon, Director of Brno Regional Chamber of Commerce (Brno RCC) of the Contact-Contract event that is just coming to a close at the International Engineering Fair MSV.
What is Contact-Contract?
Contact-Contract (C-C) is a co-operation exchange that creates an appropriate environment for finding possible partners for co-operation. After registering on our registration portal and completing a co-operation profile, those taking part can select potential business partners from among the other participants and send them a request for a meeting. These meetings are then held during the course of the event.
Brno Regional Chamber of Commerce has many years of experience in the organisation of C-C. This year it was held for the twenty-second time. Last year’s Contact-Contract was held exclusively on-line for understandable reasons, but it returned to the physical world once again at this year’s MSV.
“Foreign participants in particular welcomed the possibility of taking part on-line due to the uncertainty associated with travel conditions, for which reason we prepared a hybrid event that combined the advantages of physical and virtual participation. More than 150 face-to-face meetings were held over the course of three days at MSV, while another 50 virtual meetings took place on the next two days. A total of more than 250 participants from 22 countries around the world took part in the project,” says Absolon of this year’s event.
New paths to business
Eva Bajerová from the company OKdron s.r.o., who was taking part in C-C for the first time, asks the rhetorical question, “what did we get out of our visit to BVV and the Engineering Fair”, and immediately answers that “the Contact-Contract event held by Brno Regional Chamber of Commerce gave us the chance of addressing potential business partners, and we took full advantage of this opportunity.”
“The continuing advantage of the event is the chance of looking at the profiles of the companies taking part, studying what they are offering or seeking on the marketplace, and targeting the arrangement of meetings accordingly. As someone who is rather shy at heart, this makes it easier for me to address potential business partners than I could at the kind of ‘networking events’ where they simply let businessmen loose and who they meet is left purely up to their own individual assertiveness” says Ladislav Buček, Executive Director of the company Everesta, s.r.o., in praise of the format of the event. He goes on to say that “our company’s shift from education and consultancy towards becoming a more comprehensive project firm makes the situation easier for us in that we are not trying to sell ourselves at any price at C-C. We are looking for partners, suppliers and (it goes without saying :) clients, so I generally get a lot of invitations for talks. I don’t reject any of them if it is at all possible from the organisational perspective. Even the seemingly least productive talks often turn into excellent business opportunities or co-operation.”
“I take part in the Contact-Contract event every single year, except for the Covid years. In comparison with previous years, even if the number of people taking part in Contact-Contract and the number of exhibitors at MSV in Brno was considerably smaller, I get the feeling that the talks we held were of a far higher standard and offered better prospects,” says regular participant in C-C Jaroslav Dohnal, Managing Director at the company DV4 Ipsum s.r.o., before going on to say that “I am convinced that we have managed to find new business partners who will work with us on production for our existing customers.”
“This year’s event was still overshadowed by Covid and the associated restrictive measures, though I am delighted to see it being held again and delighted that we were able to meet up in person… I am convinced that face-to-face contract events of this kind are of great importance at such a time, or perhaps particularly at such a time. I got the chance of making up for the lack of social contact after so many on-line meetings. It is also certainly a good thing that the event has its accompanying on-line section, giving us the chance of seeing foreign participants and/or those who were unable to make it to the event due to illness, quarantine, etc.,” says Ladislav Buček, summing up the other advantages of taking part this year.
Co-operation exchanges as a tried-and-trusted format
The Contact-Contract event was held by Brno Regional Chamber of Commerce and its partners 8–12 November 2021 within the Enterprise Europe Network*.
The Brno Chamber is involved on a regular basis in the organisation of special co-operation events for various lines of business along with its foreign partners – follow our webpages or subscribe to our newsletter. You can also take advantage of our permanent co-operation exchange Cont(r)act, which does not have any particular branch focus and which targets the domestic market.
Drawn up by: Brno Regional Chamber of Commerce
Brno, 12 November 2021
* The services of the Enterprise Europe Network are financed by the European Union from the COSME programme (2014–2020) on the basis of grant contract no. 879 523 and are co-financed by the Ministry of Industry and Trade of the Czech Republic. Most of its services are provided free of charge.
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