CVP Blog

Posted by Tara Barone, Customer Value Partners on June 23, 2010

Imagine being able to connect with someone you have just met without having to worry about remembering their name, getting your contact info to them (since you left your business cards in your hotel room), and keeping track of volumes of business cards handed to you at an event (that you swear you put in your briefcase). Well, imagine no more. Roll all of that up with an environmentally sound device, and you have the “MingleStick.”
Mingle 360 is a new, innovative, event technology company offering a product that uses infrared technology to help business professionals make connections. I sat down with Mingle360’s VP of Marketing, Bradley Blinn, to learn more about this new lead retrieval technology and the way it is changing the face of professional networking.

The company was started back in 2006 and was birthed from the idea that there had to be a better way to get connected with someone. The group at Mingle360 identified the challenges with the social context of making contacts and exchanging “personally identifiable information.”

For example, networking, a quintessential means of connecting to the professional world, does not come easy for a lot of people and by most, would not be considered fun or entertaining in the least. One major drawback for many of these professionals is the idea of having their personal information available to other professionals who they have just met.

Mingle 360 has designed “click-to-connect” technology that enables professionals to connect in a safe, comfortable way, while maintaining the privacy and networking standards of business professionals.

The concept for this type of technology is that the professional has control over the amount of personal information that another professional can have access to. The way it works is that two professionals who want to connect do so through the mingle stick technology by the click of a button simultaneously. What is transferred is not a list of contact information, but an identification code that is connected to an online “Mingle” account. Each professional has his or her own account where they can set privacy settings, store information, and organize their contacts.

And so it is. Mingle360’s slogan Meet-Click-Connect sums up exactly how easy it is to get started and make initial contacts.

I asked Brad about his plans to market the product. Up to this point, the strategy has been to “go where the people are.” According to Blinn, attendees at a recent trade show were taking their mingle sticks to social events outside of the conference in order to continue to make connections during time set aside for socializing.

“It’s great event technology for where people go to connect socially. Outside the technology, the biggest thing it creates is a social environment for business professionals. Our focus, to start, is trade shows, meetings, and conferences on the business side, and concerts, night clubs, and festivals on the social side. We feel that the idea of a “one-click” connection is a powerful concept.”

So the question now is what happens after you go home?

Users can take their MingleStick home and upload their contacts onto their computer like they would with a zip drive. Then the information can be uploaded to their personal Mingle 360 account and even converted and downloaded into a single spreadsheet.

And how is this new technology being accepted so far?

A Jiffy Lube Tradeshow attendee described the MingleStick as “Facebook on steroids.” According to Blinn, there has been an overwhelming response from trade show attendees who have used the MingleStick. The MingleStick now interfaces with LinkedIn, Twitter, and Facebook.

As more innovative products like this are developed, organizations can enhance not only their networking capabilities but their social media approach as well. The trick is to ensure a level of confidentiality like the Mingle accounts, especially in the wake of the Facebook privacy concerns.