Canadian Franchise Association – Sessions and Speeches

The second day of the 2008 Canadian Franchise Association’s (CFA) Annual Conference was a good one — well aside from reeling from a 24-hour bout with the flu, but I think few noticed. Those involved with the CFA, both the coordinators and the participating companies, are very welcoming and open to newbies like myself.

I find tradeshows are a great place to work on your elevator pitch. Where else can you explain your concept over-and-over-and-over-and-over again in a short amount of time. Pitch it once, look for non-verbal cues to comprehension, and then repeat again to the next person, adjusting the message to see what resonates.

One thing that has struck me about those participating (and I found this last year as an exhibitor as well), is that many of the senior executives of franchise systems for the country’s largest companies, just don’t get the Internet yet. It scares them. For those of us who are immersed in the advances of marketing and technology, we start to take it for granted and assume that everyone “gets it”. They don’t. But that’s where opportunities are made.

Case in point: last night there were a series of awards handed out at the annual Frankie Awards dinner. Their were awards from everything from Direct Marketing, Radio spots, TV commercials, Magazine Advertisements, Newspaper Advertisements and even one for best use of advertising on Transit or a Bus Shelter. There was one generic award for “Internet”, but this was more of a “hey… congrats on the new website” kind of award. I won’t spill the beans on who won the awards, but you think the CFA would have put out a news release this morning announcing the winners. There is a missed marketing opportunity right there.

There was one session yesterday facilitated by Sean Saraga of both MrFranchise.ca and now with PostNet called “The Millenial Generation & On-line Social Networking“. I think many in the audience were dumbfounded and a little frightened by what Sean had to say. But he was bang on.

Anyhow, the morning’s sessions are about to start. Until next time.