At Dealmakers' Summit, Connections Count

By BEN HEINEMANN As indicated by the myriad of conversations making the Paris room of the Hotel Sofitel Chicago Water Tower in Chicago buzz with life, when it comes to securing funding for your franchise, face-to-face connections matter. During a cocktail hour and dinner held on the first night of the Dealmaker’s Summit, franchisees, franchisors, presidents, COOs and CEOs mingled, shook hands and made potentially life-changing deals with a carefully selected group of managing partners, directors, principals and vice presidents of some of the top equity firms in the business. Limited to just under 100 participants, the intimate setting and small size of the event, brainchild of Susan Black-Beth, ensured that everybody rubbed elbows at least once during the social component of the conference, which also included a day filled with educational workshops and one-on-one breakout meetings. Black-Beth, COO of Superwash, Inc., created the event as a way to shorten the sometimes difficult and long path between money and people who want money. As she told 1851 Magazine in June, “All my research since October 2011 showed that there really isn’t an event like this that would cross all the verticals of franchising. It gets done for hotels and restaurants, but we’ve never seen it done for franchising.” At 1851, we are firm believers that it’s the people in franchising that make for some of the most compelling stories in the industry. Over a buffet-style spread of all different types of foods meant to reflect the event’s Chicago surroundings, attendees were able to passionately tell their stories to potential investors, creating not only a business connection, but an emotional and personal one as well. This gives franchisees and franchisors that extra edge over those that simply send paper documents to prospective investors. With the potential to create over $100 million in deals during the two days of the conference, all done in a setting that almost guarantees personal interaction with some of the biggest investors in the industry, the Dealmakers’ Summit stands out as one of the most worthwhile and exclusive conference events in franchising.