The importance of partnerships

Since I first started thinking about launching Sense Media, I realised that we were going to need a strong network of partners to succeed.?

We consider every business we work with a partner. We don’t have suppliers and clients. No business relationship should be a one-way interaction. If it is, something is wrong.

I believe it’s about empathy.

It’s not always easy to build good relationships with other businesses. Personalities, time, priorities, and most importantly, alignment of business objectives are all factors. For me, a good business relationship always starts with making sure we understand the other company’s objectives and priorities.

I believe it’s about empathy. I have always felt I had a strong sense of empathy – the ability to put myself in someone else’s shoes and to try to understand their perspective and why it might be different from my own. Our team is like-minded, and that’s not by accident. A different perspective is not a wrong perspective, there are myriad reasons we develop different views and attitudes. But in order to have a healthy relationship you need to put these cards on the table and see your interaction through the other person’s eyes.

Success requires something bigger than any one business

At Sense Media our approach to business is the same. Our priorities are no more important than those of our partners. We are all equals. We are not subservient just because we have a commercial relationship with our sponsors. We do not become authoritarian because we are paying a service provider. We push back if we think an exhibitor is being unreasonable. We try to make life as easy as possible for the teams that help us to deliver our events onsite.

I see parallels throughout our industry. So often during keynote speeches or panel discussions we hear that there will be no single winner of the ADAS evolution, or the race towards level 5 autonomy. It’s bigger than any one business, and I always look forward to hearing about how these partnerships form, flourish and deliver results. Our opening Keynote at AutoSensONLINE next week is a great example.

The first ever Sponsor we had for AutoSens was onsemi (when they were known as ON Semiconductor). Our contact was confident in our engineer-led approach and our design of a new event. I believe it was a trust well placed, and I’m so pleased to see how our relationship with onsemi has grown over the years. Our original contact moved on (we are still in touch), but we have continued to have a great working relationship with the onsemi team. It consists of open, honest dialogue and two-way feedback that helps us to ensure we both get great value.

And so, after the very challenging 18 months we have had, whether in the events industry or semiconductor sector, I’m delighted to announce that onsemi will be Lead Sponsor for the 4th year running at the AutoSens conference in Brussels in September 2022. It’s a great partnership, and while there are many challenges remaining in the industry, it’s by working together and maintaining strong business and personal relationships that we will continue to prosper.

As another good friend of AutoSens said back in 2016 at the inaugural event – onwards and upwards!