The Best Business Opportunities Often Begin After the Agenda Ends.

The presentation may bring you into the room, but he conversation afterward is often what makes the trip worthwhile. Think about some of the most valuable relationships you have built in business. Chances are, they didn't begin with someone standing behind a podium.

They started over coffee before the first session. In a hallway. At dinner with someone you had only met a few hours earlier. Or when a casual introduction turned into a discussion about a challenge both of your companies were trying to solve.

Moments can be difficult to schedule or recreate, but they're often where the real value of an industry event begins.

That idea is at the heart of NFFS Cast & Connect: Foundry Round-Up, taking place October 8 in Fort Worth, Texas. Rather than building another event around a packed schedule of presentations, Cast & Connect is designed around something much simpler: giving people in the metal casting industry the time and environment to actually connect.

There Is Value in Having Nowhere Else to Be

Most industry events are built around an agenda.

There are presentations to attend, speakers to hear, meetings to make and exhibit halls to walk. All of those things are valuable. But they also create a familiar problem: just as an interesting conversation begins, someone has to leave for the next session.

Cast & Connect flips the traditional trade association event model.

From a foundry tour and Texas-style networking reception, to an evening at the historic Fort Worth Stockyards for the PBR Stockyards Showcase at Cowtown Coliseum – there’s something for everyone to experience. And the people you experience it with are what make it valuable.

Relationships Rarely Start With a Sales Pitch

The foundry industry is built on relationships. A casual conversation can lead to a future customer, uncover a supplier solution or connect you with a peer who has already tackled the challenge you're facing.

Sometimes the most valuable outcome is simply meeting someone you can call six months from now when you need an answer. Those relationships are difficult to manufacture through scheduled meetings alone. They develop when people have enough time to move beyond introductions.

Sometimes the most valuable outcome is simply meeting someone you can call six months from now when you need an answer.

The Conversation Changes When the Setting Changes

There is also something to be said for getting out of the conference room.

People talk differently when they are experiencing something together. Sitting next to someone at a rodeo feels different from sitting across from them at a conference table. Conversations become less formal. Titles become less important. People tell stories, compare experiences and discover common ground.

You Never Know Which Conversation Will Matter

Not every conversation at an industry event will result in a purchase order—and it shouldn't. Networking is about much more than collecting leads.

You might hear how another foundry solved a recruiting problem. Discover a supplier capability you did not know existed. Meet someone whose company needs exactly the type of casting your foundry produces. Reconnect with an industry colleague you have not seen in years.

Cast & Connect: Foundry Round-Up makes this possible. Secure your spot today, and join us on October 8th.