SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA – June 5, 2014 – 18 months after launching its hit B2B matching service online, Matchboard has announced an off-line model, bringing companies and prospects together face-to-face, in an intimate boardroom setting. The concept is that Matchboard works one-on-one with a company (in its supplier community) to produce a boardroom lunch, where Matchboard’s role is to fill the room with 10-20 prospects who match a set of pre-defined criteria. The supplier’s role is to provide the venue and speaker. The ultimate goal of the events is to generate new business leads and raise market awareness for the participating supplier.
The new off-line model has been successfully tested with six companies, from technology vendors and data solution providers to call centre outsourcers.
The commercial model is unique, and completely different to that of a conference organiser or event production company: attendees pay nothing, and Matchboard takes risk around the ROI for the presenting company.
“We charge the presenting company a small fixed fee per event, but our primary interest is in generating deals, which we then take a percentage of,” said Matchboard’s Managing Director, Sharon Melamed. “In this way, we back ourselves in terms of the quality and relevance of the audience we bring to the table.” And just as with its core online business, Matchboard relies on the honesty of its suppliers to report their wins from the event.
The boardroom lunches follow a successful formula of a 1-hour entertaining and interactive session, followed by optional networking. “What people don’t want is another death by PowerPoint session,” said Melamed. “So we work closely with our presenters on more creative, interesting formats which engage the audience using elements such as multimedia, prizes and a healthy dose of humour!” In person events were rated the third most effective form of B2B content marketing, ahead of webinars, social media and 25 other marketing tactics, according to a survey of 815 B2B marketers on LinkedIn released this year.
About Matchboard
Matchboard is a free online matching service which helps companies find the right suppliers for their needs. Our powerful matching platform enables users to “cut through” the thousands of market offerings and quickly identify a shortlist of suppliers matching a specific business need. Whether it’s outsourcing a contact centre or sales operation, finding reputable digital marketing agencies or sourcing technology vendors or consultants, Matchboard specialises in the supply chain around sales and marketing, customer service and back office. We help everyone from executives at large enterprise, to business owners and Government agencies. Matchboard was founded by industry veteran, Sharon Melamed. Passionate about reducing the time people waste in looking for the right suppliers, and the frustration and cost of ill-informed purchasing decisions, Sharon launched Matchboard in 2012. Complementing its core online offering, Matchboard Events has now been launched as the company’s off-line model.
#########
Media inquiries:
Sharon Melamed
Managing Director
Matchboard
sharon@Matchboard.com.au
+61 458 957 907