By Doug Sharpe, President of Elasto Proxy
Recently, Elasto Proxy joined CR4: The Engineer’s Place for News and Discussion, an on-line community where technical professionals ask questions, get answers, and interact with their peers. CR4 is primarily an engineering community, but also welcomes suppliers, product designers, and industrial buyers. The website consists of blogs and forums, and includes technology-related news stories from across the Web and around the world. Truly global in nature, CR4 is powered by GlobalSpec, Inc., a technology services company with a powerful search engine and robust database of engineering and industrial products.
When my wife Donna and I started Elasto Proxy in 1989, we could not have imagined that our small business could connect with so many technical professionals all in one place – and while on-line no less. Elasto Proxy attends conferences and tradeshows, of course, and Donna and I just returned from a trade mission to Brazil. Clyde Sharpe, Elasto Proxy’s President of International Sales, visited Europe twice this fall, once to Berlin, Germany for InnoTrans 2012 and then again to Italy and Belgium for meetings with suppliers. Megan Beaulieu, our Executive Support Specialist, also attends key business events, such as for the SME Passport Program here in Montreal.
Joining CR4 may not seem as exotic as traveling to other countries, but it’s an exciting part of our new content marketing strategy. Elasto Proxy’s involvement in GlobalSpec’s on-line engineering community also complements our participation in that company’s virtual events series, such as GlobalSpec’s recent Wind Energy Technology Tradeshow. Blogging for CR4 isn’t the same as staffing a tradeshow booth, of course, but our approach isn’t too different from what you’ll read here – or what you’ll learn if you contact our solutions providers. Elasto Proxy’s CR4 blog is about sealing solutions for a reason.
Engineers don’t want to be “sold” to, especially when they’re visiting a website that is their place for news and discussion. Elasto Proxy understands that, respects it, and appreciates how CR4’s approach complements our own philosophy of analyzing all of your requirements and listening to all of your needs. As a past president of the Industrial Sealing Distribution Association (ISD), I helped to advance the ISD’s mission of enhancing member success through information, education, and interaction. Today, as a part of the CR4 community, Elasto Proxy is blogging in that same collaborative spirit.
I hope you’ll read my first CR4 blog entry, Solving Industrial Sealing Challenges, and share your thoughts here or on CR4. What sealing challenges would you like to learn more about? And is your own company ready to talk to engineers, too?
