Blog
1 February 2018
Dunin at the KBIS American Show // Sherbrooke International
Auteur : Sherbrooke Innopole
As part of the Sherbrooke International program, selected Sherbrooke businesses have received direct support for their development outside Québec. Sherbrooke International is proud to encourage and support Sherbrooke businesses to shine internationally. After each of these significant projects, participants are invited to share their experiences through a blog post.
From January 8 to 11, 2018, Marc Choquette, Vice-President of Business Development at Dunin Technologie, a company from the Information and Communication Technologies key sector, took part in a trade show in Florida. He related his experience:
In our efforts to break into the American market, from January 8 to 11, 2018, I had the privilege of participating in the Kitchen & Bath Industry Show (KBIS) at Orlando’s Convention Center in Florida. The place is huge. In fact, this convention centre with four distinct sections is the second-largest centre of this type in the United States. I walked in through the main door.
The main objective of attending this event was to support our client companies by taking part in rolling out their (current or future) ordering tool: Eve. This gave me the opportunity to answer many questions from dealers who were curious to learn more about this new tool.
My second objective was to validate the market we had targeted for rolling out Eve in the United States. I was able to get a feel for the kitchen cabinet sector’s interest in our product. Many of the companies at this convention are major players in the industry. Several of them offshore their production to China, where they have enormous warehouses. But the growing need for custom products has made Dunin’s offer more and more interesting to them. This dynamic generates a high volume of orders that are getting harder to handle with the current tools. Eve’s capacity to generate mass customization has thus piqued interest.
My third objective was to begin soliciting the various kitchen cabinet manufacturers attending the convention. The best part of this type of event is that, in most cases, I’ve been able to establish direct contact with the presidents, owners, or CEOs of the companies in our target sector.
Our presence at the KBIS was welcomed. We were able to attend thanks in part to the support of Sherbrooke Innopole, through its Sherbrooke International program. Dunin Technologie is honoured to have been one of the ambassadors chosen in the 2018 competition.
This support could not have come at a better time for Dunin, a company in full expansion. It is enabling us to pursue development activities related to our objectives to enter the US market.
I have returned from the convention with numerous new contacts and follow-up promises from these decision-makers. This experience has enabled us to stay in contact with our current partner clients, take the pulse of the evolution of our target market, and directly solicit our decision-making prospects.
