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There are things that some new cafes in Singapore do, which makes me very exasperated… Do you even know what you are doing? Have you considered about your business in a long run? Where are your business ethics? What is your level of professionalism?
Sorry that I have to get this off my chest.
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The background story: There is a Food & Socialikes Conference meant for food bloggers and food instagrammers taking place in May. Entirely non-profit, meant for people in this industry to share about food-related topics.
Subjects include technology and food, trend in food and social media, smartphone food photography, principles of life and blogging, and impact of social media on restaurants (Ironic. The cafe involved should attend this panel discussion.)
The Food Conference has gathered quite some names, including founders, restaurateurs and authors of food blogs from HungryGoWhere, Burpple, I Eat I Shoot I Post, Wild Rocket, Saveur, Mis Tam Chiak, Johor Kaki, Camemberu, Seth Lui etc.
I didn’t publicise (yet) on my social media because the team had a very healthy sign-up rate and wanted to keep the conference small and manageable.
The thing is this… The café who is the venue sponsor pulled out AFTER publicity materials have gone out, BECAUSE another organization wanted to have an event on the same day, and they would be PAYING.
So the café chose paying over non-paying, monetary over non-monetary. That’s not the point right?
5 points I would like to raise.
Professionalism
Being an events venue, do not agree to something, then pull out last minute for inconsequential reasons. What does this do to your reputation?
Respect
A business must always respect its customers, especially after you have given the word.
Words get around
The industry is sooooo small. Words do get around.
Do not count everything in monetary value
This is one of the most myopic areas happening to many new businesses, that they focus on short term gain over long term benefits.
I can safely say the PR value of any one of the high profile speakers, say Dr Leslie Tay, would outweigh the rental cost by multiple times. And from what I understand, Dr Leslie is very selective of his projects that even if you have the money, he may not agree to take part.
The impact of social media
Time and time again, we are reminded of the impact of social media, and I always wonder why some businesses choose to turn a blind eye, or do things that stab themselves in the foot.
I who have visited more than 200 cafes in Singapore, have NEVER heard of the café until this conference, and would have been happy to give them some publicity too.
With that said, I don’t believe in slamming the events venue. Don’t go around searching and post things on their walls (even if it is really quite easy to find.)
I believe when the day comes, when they see how much exposure the new venue gets, it will be one of the biggest regret in their business life. Peace.
(I am writing this in capacity as a by-stander invited as a panelist.)
The post Dear Café, Don’t Say Yes, Then Say No. Because of Money appeared first on DanielFoodDiary.com.