Friday 13/03/08
Groundhog day. Wake up. Shave. Breakfast. Put suit on. Get Tram. Trek the long corridors to Hall 8.0 – its almost like I never left.
No, no, no. Hold on that was yesterday. Today was slightly different because we were a little later (and considering the state of some people last night its not too surprising) and it was a bit wet, so being delicate little flowers we got a cab. Beyond that it was groundhog day again. I think only the change of shirt made it very different initially. That and the bundle of rags on my hotel room floor, that turned out to be a friend of mine who never made it home. Ah thank the lord for the PSNE Pub quiz, every year good intentions are left in the gutter along with conciousness and colleagues.
Luckily its a bit quieter on all fronts in the morning and not just in the hall. The Sound Forum or speaker shootout is still a stupidly low levels. With the much vaunted ruthless German efficiency you would have thought external noise complaints would have been factored into setting this segment of the show up. Still they’ve got everyone’s money now. So the exhibitors aren’t happy, and neither are the punters – OK you can judge a system when its running low level but these guys want to here these things rock! Hey Ho, even after last night it’s still a little too loud for Paul, who is driving the system, or is that not loud enough?
Groundhog day. Wake up. Shave. Breakfast. Put suit on. Get Tram. Trek the long corridors to Hall 8.0 – its almost like I never left.
No, no, no. Hold on that was yesterday. Today was slightly different because we were a little later (and considering the state of some people last night its not too surprising) and it was a bit wet, so being delicate little flowers we got a cab. Beyond that it was groundhog day again. I think only the change of shirt made it very different initially. That and the bundle of rags on my hotel room floor, that turned out to be a friend of mine who never made it home. Ah thank the lord for the PSNE Pub quiz, every year good intentions are left in the gutter along with conciousness and colleagues.
Luckily its a bit quieter on all fronts in the morning and not just in the hall. The Sound Forum or speaker shootout is still a stupidly low levels. With the much vaunted ruthless German efficiency you would have thought external noise complaints would have been factored into setting this segment of the show up. Still they’ve got everyone’s money now. So the exhibitors aren’t happy, and neither are the punters – OK you can judge a system when its running low level but these guys want to here these things rock! Hey Ho, even after last night it’s still a little too loud for Paul, who is driving the system, or is that not loud enough?
Anyway I have a few meetings with distribution which all goes well, everyone being excited by Flex, new Impact and the other upcoming products we discuss. Plus some customers who’ve already done the show come back for a further chat, a coffee and answers to questions they’ve been mulling over.
And then there are the meetings with companies who want to distribute your product in such & such a country – usually wherever you are doing well. Could that be a coincidence, I wonder. Sometimes these are 10 minute conversations that are all about you being polite and saying “we’re very flattered but we’re happy with our current arrangements” whilst they try to convince you that they respect your current distributor but how they are holding back the brand and/or messing the market up, and how they would do a much, much better job. Other times these are those kind of conversations where you are both trying to find out as much information and gossip as possible whilst giving out as little as possible. And then there are the rare ones when you have no idea why you are sat down exchanging pleasantries with someone who you once may once had said hello to, and they have just “dropped by to say hello”. Ah the heady atmosphere of a closed trade show does weird things to some people.
Once more no lunch, but I am getting used to breadsticks. Am quite glad I can’t eat the spicy Wurst that is the only other real offering. Looks like they may do damage over a period of days to the unprepared. Start thinking of dinner at the Italian – mmmhh fresh food and properly cooked.
Then the afternoon takes an interesting turn. Notice some guys looking somewhat animatedly at the Flex Arrays. Kind of think I half recognise them and consider whether I should offer my help. Then my memory throws out the info I was looking for, I do know who at least one of then is. One of our competitors. Not that it makes any difference to me, we’ve nothing to hide. I always offer to talk to people about what we’re doing and to discuss it with them – after all we’re all trying to make the best speakers we can – and I’ve had some really interesting conversations with “competitors”. Truth be told, as loudspeaker manufacturers, once you’ve got beyond world domination and the money, we’re all trying to produce excellence its just our philosophies on what excellence is and how to get there differ. But its funny usually you approach other companies who are looking at your product and offer to help and they either melt back into the show hub-bub or you have an interesting conversation. This time the situation was a little different…..
…..After dealing with that I really needed a sit down and a drink to recover but there were still several hours left until end of the show. So more coffee – always relaxing for the nerves - more Apfelsan and wasser had to suffice. Show hit a quiet patch, a precursor of the deadly Public Saturday where the only people you talk to are other bored Exhibitors who haven’t been lucky enough to leave for home already because they have to strike the stand. On that note various members of Team Turbo started to disappear, with the usual discussions about flight delays, sharing cabs and how they’d love to stay and help strike but……
They leave, we stay. And eventually, after a few last discussions about Flexarray, and some goodbyes to distributors who are heading home, its time to have a quick beer on the stand, a quick gossip then a vote. Back to the hotel to drop bags and have a shower or straight to the restaurant for food and wine. I call the restaurant who says they are busy until after 9pm but if we want to come now (6.45pm ish) and eat quickly they’ll squeeze us in. We decide to eat. We are ushered in and hurriedly order our food so not as to abuse our host’s largesse in fitting us in. We leave the restaurant close to midnight, obviously not having been thrown out at 8pm, after some good wine and gossiping about the days events. We also sort out a table for late on Saturday night to ensure we can get something to eat after the strike – wandering the streets of Frankfurt after 10pm hungry and tired, after striking a show, looking for food is not something you want to do too often. In such cases experience really pays dividends.
And to bed, perchance to sleep, perchance to dream…….
And then there are the meetings with companies who want to distribute your product in such & such a country – usually wherever you are doing well. Could that be a coincidence, I wonder. Sometimes these are 10 minute conversations that are all about you being polite and saying “we’re very flattered but we’re happy with our current arrangements” whilst they try to convince you that they respect your current distributor but how they are holding back the brand and/or messing the market up, and how they would do a much, much better job. Other times these are those kind of conversations where you are both trying to find out as much information and gossip as possible whilst giving out as little as possible. And then there are the rare ones when you have no idea why you are sat down exchanging pleasantries with someone who you once may once had said hello to, and they have just “dropped by to say hello”. Ah the heady atmosphere of a closed trade show does weird things to some people.
Once more no lunch, but I am getting used to breadsticks. Am quite glad I can’t eat the spicy Wurst that is the only other real offering. Looks like they may do damage over a period of days to the unprepared. Start thinking of dinner at the Italian – mmmhh fresh food and properly cooked.
Then the afternoon takes an interesting turn. Notice some guys looking somewhat animatedly at the Flex Arrays. Kind of think I half recognise them and consider whether I should offer my help. Then my memory throws out the info I was looking for, I do know who at least one of then is. One of our competitors. Not that it makes any difference to me, we’ve nothing to hide. I always offer to talk to people about what we’re doing and to discuss it with them – after all we’re all trying to make the best speakers we can – and I’ve had some really interesting conversations with “competitors”. Truth be told, as loudspeaker manufacturers, once you’ve got beyond world domination and the money, we’re all trying to produce excellence its just our philosophies on what excellence is and how to get there differ. But its funny usually you approach other companies who are looking at your product and offer to help and they either melt back into the show hub-bub or you have an interesting conversation. This time the situation was a little different…..
…..After dealing with that I really needed a sit down and a drink to recover but there were still several hours left until end of the show. So more coffee – always relaxing for the nerves - more Apfelsan and wasser had to suffice. Show hit a quiet patch, a precursor of the deadly Public Saturday where the only people you talk to are other bored Exhibitors who haven’t been lucky enough to leave for home already because they have to strike the stand. On that note various members of Team Turbo started to disappear, with the usual discussions about flight delays, sharing cabs and how they’d love to stay and help strike but……
They leave, we stay. And eventually, after a few last discussions about Flexarray, and some goodbyes to distributors who are heading home, its time to have a quick beer on the stand, a quick gossip then a vote. Back to the hotel to drop bags and have a shower or straight to the restaurant for food and wine. I call the restaurant who says they are busy until after 9pm but if we want to come now (6.45pm ish) and eat quickly they’ll squeeze us in. We decide to eat. We are ushered in and hurriedly order our food so not as to abuse our host’s largesse in fitting us in. We leave the restaurant close to midnight, obviously not having been thrown out at 8pm, after some good wine and gossiping about the days events. We also sort out a table for late on Saturday night to ensure we can get something to eat after the strike – wandering the streets of Frankfurt after 10pm hungry and tired, after striking a show, looking for food is not something you want to do too often. In such cases experience really pays dividends.
And to bed, perchance to sleep, perchance to dream…….
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