São Paulo – To circumvent social distancing and border closures, SP Negócios is investing in training businesspeople to adapt to safer ways of doing business. The trade and investment promotion agency of the government of the city of São Paulo started in June a series of online national and international B2Bs. Named Biz Connect, the initiative arose from a series of discussion groups between the Brazilian Trade and Investment Promotion Agency (Apex-Brasil), industry associations and SP Negócios.
The program started in June and will host another six industry-specific and multi-sectoral B2Bs. Registrations to participate in the B2Bs areopen in this link. The next event will be on July 16, focused on the textile industry. “’Fashion and textile’ are not just a concept, it’s the whole textile chain that will be addressed in this national B2B. The companies will meet with retailers from across Brazil and find buyers. And on July 29, we’ll have a more authorial, international fashion B2B,” SP Negócios business and export promotion director Silvana Gomes said.
The B2B round will also include one focused on architecture, household items, and decoration on July 22. Another event will be hosted on August 18, bringing businesspeople and exporters together; September 23 will see the III SP International Biz Day, the largest international business event of the city of São Paulo; and on October 22 green and sustainable companies will meet.
To complement the work, SP Negócios is also offering training for the businesspeople. “We have partners to create this dynamic of the meetings and a teacher to explain how to do meetings online. It’s hard to adapt your mindset to the digital world. And we started training the companies with this tool,” Gomes said.
The training sessions are hosted on Fridays, primarily for those who register in the B2Bs. “We simulate negotiations in a virtual environment. This helps the company to structure itself and rethink its promotional material and rhetoric, which must be short and focused,” Gomes explained. The lessons also include technical issues, such as how to share a mobile connection by hotspot and how to go from the main session to a meeting. “It’s all exhaustively trained before the B2B,” the director said.
The initiative is supported by the Arab Brazilian Chamber of Commerce and announced among its members. “SP Negócios is a very important partner for us; we have worked together to foster business and show more opportunities for our companies. Thus, we have helped announcing the B2Bs to our members and even invited some companies that are directly related to each theme,” said Daniella Leite, commercial manager at the institution.
Gomes says that SP Negócios has also developed another work with the Arab Chamber. “Leite has received demands from the Middle East for products, and we are identifying companies that could supply those products, aiming at fostering business with the Middle East. Many demands come for the food industry. And we have tried to meet them or identify companies that could do so. This partnership has been hugely important for us. The work has been fantastic,” the director said.
Translated by Guilherme Miranda
