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butN (Business Travel Networking) is an online business networking service which was established in 2013. Robin Chater is Founder and CEO. The company is owned by the services company of Federation of International Employers. The domain name record of but-n.com shows that website was launched in October 2014. butN has not shared details about its number of users.

As per the article in Marketing Magazine which is published in Australia, butN is used by Business Travelers which allows them to make contact with other professionals and executives whilst they are on the move with a view to meeting them face-to-face. The article further states that anyone can use this platform by connecting their LinkedIn account and same has been mentioned on butN's website.

History

butN was established as an initiative by the Federation of International Employers, also known as FedEE Global, which was formed in 1988 with financial support from the European Commission. Today FedEE is Chaired by the Ford Motor Company and is a Company limited by guarantee (nonprofit/NGO)

Features

butN’s features are mentioned on its website. Once a person registers with butN they can do following:

• View other professional’s profiles and send them an invitation to connect. Once request is accepted then communication starts. Somewhat similar what happens on LinkedIn. However, here one can search profiles with parameters like by job function, gender and proximity.
• Once connection has been made, users may keep confidential notes on their contacts within the system and sever connections from anyone without the need to explain their decision.
• Apart from one-to-one meet-ups any user can organize an “event”. This may be anything from an impromptu gathering at a hotel bar to a formal seminar - or even conference. Hotels, and other corporate sponsors, may also post their own events and invite others in the locality to attend.
• Once established a user’s contacts are maintained in a file and may be contacted at any time. Colour coding also makes it possible for a user to see if an existing contact is in their proximity – or is planning to cross their path in the future.

They plan to add numerous additional features, including several useful publications and tools for business travelers. A guide to international travel by the founder is available in which founder provides personal tips directed particularly at those who are not seasoned long-distance passengers. The facility to narrow the search for potential contacts by only selecting people of the same gender is of particular value to women. This will allow other business women to be identified and the special difficulty experienced by women when relaxing or dining in public during business trips will be removed.

Reviews

In Australia where the site’s beta testing is in progress, the reviews given by media have mentions that butN is a cross between Tinder and LinkedIn. Media in neighboring New Zealand has given a different review saying that this would actually benefit New Zealand.

What they achieved and What they plan to do

Trademark approval for BUTN was gained in 2014 to cover the European Union and Norway Other applications for the USA, India, China and other important markets are in the pipeline.

The site remains a full web-based service, but it has been designed as a fully scalable system for use on handhelds. An App will follow when special features are launched for use on smartphones. Different language versions of butN will also be available soon, beginning with Chinese and Japanese