Last week, Alan and Michael spent a few days joining team members from Starteam Global HQ at the Electronica Event in Munich. Electronica is the world’s leading trade fair and conference for electronics, and it is huge, with 18 halls of exhibitors.
Here’s the story of their visit, which was a brilliant opportunity to meet customers and other electronic businesses from across the globe!
Day 1
After flying over on Tuesday, the first day of the event was a long 9-hour day spent mostly on their feet talking to visitors from far and wide.
At 6pm, the fun started as Starteam Global held a party on the stand for all our customers. With “DJ Groove” pumping out our favourite tunes, and beer and wine flowing, everyone had an amazing time.
Day 2
For the second day Alan and Michael arrived at Electronica at 10am where it was already extremely busy.
Michael was pulled into a customer meeting as Alan wasn’t available and luckily managed to blag it! It calmed down though and during the afternoon the team started leaving and heading for home.
At 4pm, the G&Ts came out, which set the boys up nicely for the evening. They had their evening meal at a very nice traditional German restaurant, washed down with plenty of wine, after which they headed back to the hotel for an early night – only to be met by a colleague who had brought along the most unusual tasting drink they’d ever tasted, and it all had to be finished! So much for an early night…
Alan and Michael managed to slip away from the crowd into the hotel next door where they played bar football, Alan winning 10-8! After a brief chat and exchange of business cards with a couple of Japanese exhibitors, they then managed to get their “early” night!
Day 3
On Day 3 it was the usual drill; breakfast at 07:30 and then a 25 minute walk to the exhibition centre.
With most of the Team already home, just a few of us remained to see out the show. Not many customers in today giving us both the opportunity to explore the other stands.
To give you an idea of the size of the exhibition, we were in Hall 1 which would take you half a day to fully explore. There were 18 halls in total therefore we only really scratched the surface.
We finished up a little earlier than planned, said our auf wiedersehens and Thomas whisked us off to his home town (Augsburg) for a spot of sightseeing and a lovely evening meal.
Day 4
On Day 4 it was time to travel home! After a little more exploring in Augsburg, Thomas drove us back to Munich airport for our 15:05 flight.
It was touch and go if we would get to the gate in time, queues were horrendous and Michael’s first experience of Munich airport was not a good one. Thankfully, we made the gate with 5 minutes to spare and made it home safely.
It had been a fantastic but exhausting working week. They both enjoyed the show immensely, meeting existing and potentially new customers. Additionally, for Michael, there were the added benefits of meeting the team from all corners of the globe.
At one point on our table there was representation from the UK, Germany, Spain, Italy, France and Hong Kong – thankfully all speaking English! Moving forwards the real work starts back in the UK, contacting all our new prospects and securing new business!
It was a fantastic experience, and we look forward to many more.
