Sunday, April 02, 2006

One day Exhibition

Well folks, this week was pretty busy. While OrangeX spent 3 days in Germany in meetings, I had, among other projects, my share of preparations to do for an 1 day exhibition on Saturday.

What I find most strenuous about this particular one day exhibition is the fact that the schedule is very tight. Drive the truck up on Friday afternoon, unload the products and set up the booth, go for a usually late dinner and finally go to bed. The day of the fair, your swamped with visitors until 5:30 - 6 pm and then you have about an hour to take down the booth, pack your stuff in to the truck again and join the rest of the exhibitors for dinner at 7pm. By that time, you’re nackered, your feet and back hurt from standing all day and your throat is sore because it’s so darn dry in there and you’ve been talking all day. Unless you were lucky enough to take the time to grab a sandwich in between, you’re also starving.

Now comes the fun part: The organizers set up this terrific cold Italian buffet and usually a choice of 2 warm meals for the exhibitors. But before anyone can go for the food, we all (im)patiently wait for the organizer to finish his welcome-thank-you-for-being-here-successful-exhibition-the-buffet-is now-officially-open speech. Those are the magic words and then ... absolute silence. BUT – give it 2 ½ seconds - as soon as the first screeching sound of a chair is heard, all run to line up and attack the buffet. I must admit that at the buffet, itself, it’s quite civilized, but the line up is pretty chaotic. Once the main hunger is satisfied, things start to calm down and that’s where one notices how tired everybody is. The loud commenting of the day’s experiences and joking around dissolves into an mere chitchat and rattling of silverware and glasses.

OrangeX and I left around 9pm and drove the truck back to the office where it will be unloaded on Monday. By the time we got home, it was 10.30pm and we were exhausted. First thing we did was change into out jogging pants and most importantly, take off our shoes!

It was a very successful day for us, but I tell you one thing: Except for this blog, we won’t be doing much today.

19 comments:

Anonymous said...

hehe.. i love buffets! It lets you have a variety of things.. and i get bored eating the same thing.. even just in a meal! I know, neurotic.

have a great day guys!

Unknown said...

That's good that you aren't doing much else. I'd be sitting around or sleeping a lot which I am sure you guys did considering you posted later in the day anyways.

I'm just trying to get used to the new time change here. And of sneezing like mad while P is still sleeping...

CanadianSwiss said...

Xmichra - The cold buffet there is everyone's favourite. Hardly anybody goes for the warm menues.

Expat - We did very little today. Sneezing? Allergies, you mean? Funny. Ever since OrangeX has been in Switzeland, no allergies whatsoever. Guess those pollens aren't around here. We'll be going to bed early though. I'm dead!

Haddock said...

Wow! that sounds like a lot of work, so I hope you had a lazy day today :)

Unknown said...

Yes alergies. I hate that, but luckily they stopped after about 10 mins. I just have to take my vitamins to keep me healthy or I get really bad attacks at times, and since spring is in the air here, yup that would be why I'd assume. In 2002 - I had such bad alergies in Switz but so did everyone else. I just got reminded how I can't touch my eyes when that happens... But I'm hoping it was just a quick episode and nothing mroe later on...

And I've already forgotten we are back to 9 hrs apart.. Silly me.

CanadianSwiss said...

Haddock - It is, if you have to do it yourself. If you have the budget to have someone else to put everything up and just "boss" around, then it's a lot easier. And we did have a lazy day, but tomorrow is "a normal work day" again. Zack, zack!!! :-/

CanadianSwiss said...

Expat- I'm lucky. I don't know what allergies (except for Nickel) are like, but it must be horrible. Like I said, Orange has them, but apparently, the pollens to which he reacts are nowhere around here.

CanadianSwiss said...

Mr. Fab: We did. But now it's back to work :-/

Ginnie Hart said...

I wonder, CS, how often you have these one-day exhibitions? Are you done now for another year or do these pop up more frequently? Well, for now, it sounds like you worked your tails off and had success. Too bad you couldn't take another day off besides yesterday!

What exactly are your "products" or line of business? And does this mean you and OrangeX work for the same company? So many questions, so little time (unless this all is "confidential and proprietary").

It was nice to see another post from you :)

CanadianSwiss said...

Thanks Ginnie. This is the only "one day exhibition" we take part in (thank goodness!!) And don't worry, I'll make sure to take that day, but to make a bridge somewhere and make myself a loooong weekend.

I won't go into detail on our jobs, because I want to keep "the company" and blog apart in the long run. But yes, we work for the same company and it's in the rehab branch. It's pretty complicated to explain in a comment, so maybe I'll do a "soft" blog about it to give all an idea of what we do without too many details. As a matter of fact, I think I'll do just that. I'll try anyway. :-)

Unknown said...

Good God lets eat! I'm with xmichra, I love buffet and will eat till it's painful. Stopped to say hello and hope you and orange x are fab!

Rob7534 said...

Sounds like you have been through this situation a million times CS! Sounds like you're pretty bored of it as well, I'm sorry.

There's nothing like coming home, changing into "something more comfortable" and taking your shoes off!

Heaven!

I hope you two had a restful night.

CanadianSwiss said...

Hey Babs - Thanks for dropping by again.

Rob - In a way, you're right. I've done this particular exhibition since 1999. I know it inside out, but it's still very important for us to attend. Maybe I just need a vacation!

christina said...

Wow, what a tiring day you had! You must have a lot of stamina to get through that.

Hope you can relax a bit now!

CanadianSwiss said...

Christina - Yes I needed all the energy I had (and used it up, too). No relaxing until the long Easter weekend :-(

Unknown said...

I came a knockin' just to say hello and see how you two are doing? Hope all is well!

Unknown said...

The bright side to all this being that you certainly weren’t bored.;-)

Michael Lehet said...

I've done many a trade shows so I know exactly what you're talking about.

In fact I'm going to a 4 day one in May...ugh!

CanadianSwiss said...

Babs -You're welcome to drop by anytime. I don't blog as much as I'd like to, but ... work! We're doning fine. OrangeX just got back from a week of management training in Germany, so I'm glad he's home again.

Just another - Yeah. Tell me about it! ;-)

Micheal - So you're probably in Sales and Marketing (S&M - love it) or one of the latter ;-)