One of the biggest shows of the year - AQUANALE Cologne
I know that you are accustomed to Newsletters mostly written in the third person – e.g. ALUKOV attended the exhibition , ALUKOV opened a new hall,… This time I have to make an exception.
For the first time I participated in one of the largest international exhibitions with ALUKOV. From 19th to 25th October 2013 Cologne became my temporary home. And I got many experiences.
Let’s skip the organization (which took several weeks), convening partners to traditional IPC dinner, booking hotels, shopping, packing and a long drive…
What was for example new for me: I participated in the exhibition from the beginning. So I didn‘t come to the finished stand, as usual, but I was directly involved in the assembly of the stand. And I must say that what could under the hands of dozen of smart guys grow in two days, how everything ran easy peasy, was admirable. It was obvious that the ALUKOV team is already experienced, so: first the carpets, then electricity, build a bar and enclosures, stick LED tapes, bring and settle furniture and other stuff… Altogether twenty hours of work and the stand could welcome the first visitors. But besides joy we feel especially tired, and the worst is yet to come.
Tuesday: the exhibition begins… It’s time to take off comfortable shoes and slip into the high heels. From the first exhibition morning, we started beloved ritual on our stand - with the stroke of 10 o’clock a toast and our exhibition jingle - the main theme from James Bond. The sound then resonated in the hall 10.1, whenever one of our foreign partners or somebody special came to our stand. And there were lots of these opportunities.
Although we expected that the exhibition AQUANALE will be mainly the occasion to make new contacts, to expand the dealer‘s network in Germany and strengthen existing relationship, many „final customers“ - those interested in enclosures – arrived to our stand. Although that there were many business representatives on the stand, even I had to brush up on knowledge of German language and advise visitors which enclosures is the best for them. They were all very nice, apparently had a real interest in our products, so they forgave me my imperfect German. At the end of the day I think just about one – thatI wanted to be a guy… (I do not know how THEY can complain that their feet hurt. Try to change it with me! At least the shoes…)
On Tuesday evening we all gladly accepted the invitation to celebrate the 10th birthday of Nastěnka, Alexey Shigayev‘s (boss of our Russian partner Polikarp) daughter. Birthday party on a boat sailing on the Rhine, even when at the end of October was still a beautiful warm night, it was an amazing experience.
On Wednesday evening , representatives of the IPC Team and business partners from Germany and Austria met at the traditional IPC dinner. In the restaurant Em Golde Kappes they made for us typical Cologne menu and we finally had the time for some relaxed talk not only about work.
On Thursday night was held traditional AQUANIGHT - party organized by the organizers of the exhibition with dinner and a live band. With the vision that the last day of the exhibition is in front of us, part of us had fun till the late night and despite the complaints about sore feet we really hit the floor. Nevertheless the miracle didn‘t happen – our legs hurt even more. I don’t wanna se the heels tomorrow!
The last day of the exhibition (Friday) was fortunately in a calmer spirit . The exhibition ended earlier, at four o’clock p.m. , many exhibitors had left it already during the day. Anyway we all were really lucky when we saw how many contacts of the people interested in enclosure and possible dealers we got. So in two years we will come gladly again!
