Aspiration Software founder Brian Fenton offers feedback on what he thought was overall, an excellent event.
The inaugural HR Indaba featured Aspiration Software, a performance and talent management software provider that focuses on creating a culture of high performance and capability. In this article, we speak to the company’s founder and director Brian Fenton about his experience at the event.
What was your overall impression of last year’s inaugural HR Indaba?
It was an excellent event for several reasons but the biggest one was the pricing. An exhibition that doesn’t charge entry for the majority of delegates is invaluable to the exhibitors. A lot of our potential clients are small businesses and the fact that it was economical for people to attend made it worthwhile for us. I would really urge HR Indaba not to move away from that.
Similarly, with the prices for exhibitors, I think there was great value for us last year, especially because we also had a speaking slot. This made it a lot easier to have a conversation when people came to our stand. Delegates sometimes are apprehensive when engaging with exhibitors because they fear the oversell. So, having 15 minutes to speak generally about the problems we solve and the solutions we bring, helps to break the ice. It really made a difference for us.
The layout of the venue and the overall look of the stands were just excellent. I really like how the venue looked full but not too cramped.
What was it that made you sign up so early as an exhibitor for 2019?
I re-signed for the event last year already because we didn’t want to pay the increased rate for 2019. I realised that this year’s fee is significantly higher and that’s where my biggest concern is with the HR Indaba. I hope that the pricing doesn’t spiral beyond our reach. You have a great event and we expect it to be even bigger this year.
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Did you get a chance to attend some of the talks?
Not many but I did see one or two. From what I heard, most of the talks were very insightful. There was a good mix of people and topics although some of the speakers spent a little too much time punting their own products, which is understandable if they have paid for speaking slots.
How was the response to your stand?
It was very good. We got about 50 leads from the event and, although they were not all decision-makers, we were very happy with that. We believe that if we can get at last one sale from the event, then it would have a been a good return on our investment and we are hopeful that we will get that.
The people that we talked to all had specific needs and we were able to advise them on whether our solution would suit them. That’s the great thing about having an event just for HR people. We could have conversations about talent and performance management with the actual practitioners that execute those kinds of processes and systems in their organisations. We are expecting a bigger HR Indaba this year so we’re going to go all out to make a bigger impact this time around.
Were there any insights you garnered from the event that impacted your business strategy for 2019?
We learnt that the market penetration of systems like ours is still quite low, which was quite encouraging. Our strategy for 2019 is to continue with the same range of products but to look at a more advanced performance management system to keep up with industry changes. Particularly, we would like to create a new module that will improve the agility of our performance management offering and make it even more suited to a continuous performance process.
