A keychain for the conversation you meant to continue

You meet somebody useful, exchange details and promise to follow up. Later, the phone contains a number with too little explanation attached to it.

Camilla Mhlambi's Portale keychain addresses that small but familiar break in the chain. A Forbes Africa profile describes the Johannesburg entrepreneur's NFC product, which links to a personal page. The idea is to make information about a person or business easier to carry from a brief meeting into a later conversation.

The attraction is convenience. Instead of separately spelling an email address, finding a website and sending a social profile, the owner can direct someone towards one place. Whether a particular product suits your devices and needs should be checked with the supplier; this is a look at the idea rather than a product test.

The personal page behind the object is where most of the useful work must happen.

A small business has only a short opportunity to make itself clear to a new contact. What do you do? Who is the service for? Where do you work? Can someone see an example and reach you easily? A visitor who has to solve those questions by opening five more pages may abandon the attempt.

The same applies to somebody looking for opportunities. A concise description of skills and a relevant example can help another person remember why the conversation was promising. Listing everything you have ever done may make the useful part harder to find.

Keeping the information current matters as much as sharing it elegantly. A changed telephone number, an old service area or an unavailable product can make a polished introduction frustrating. Before buying any connected accessory, ask how updates work, what ongoing costs apply and what happens if the service changes.

There is also a sensible distinction between public and private information. A page intended for new contacts needs enough detail to support the next step. It rarely needs every personal detail that could be added to it.

Portale belongs to an interesting category of small enterprise: a physical object intended to smooth a digital interaction. Its value will be decided in ordinary use, when somebody returns to the information and manages to do what the first conversation suggested.

The keychain can carry the introduction. A clear offer and a timely reply still turn it into a working relationship.

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