Amsterdam Part One: IBC Show

So the entire reason why I went to Amsterdam was for the IBC show. It's our biggest European tradeshow of the year. Normally, this show was booked through our corporate office so that we'd share a booth with our other sister companies. But because we were acquired by a new company in April, I had to scramble to get a booth. After months of being on a waiting list, we finally got approval to get a booth. In a new Hall. We were worried that no one would be able to find us in the new hall. For the most part, we were right, but those that needed to see us eventually found us. Despite the last minute planning, the booth looked great. In fact, everyone was commenting on how this was by far our best looking booth yet!!

The show opened on Friday and ended on Tuesday. This, also being one of our longest shows. On Friday, we began with a Distributor Meeting. I didn't attend because it overlapped the show open, but I heard that it was well attended.

Saturday, at the end of the show, we hosted a Preview Party for our new product. This was probably the one thing that I was most worried about. Because of some last minute changes, we didn't send the invite out until about a week before. Which usually means, we can't count on a good turn out. This time, we did! Our booth was packed! Of course maybe it was the champagne and appetizers....you know how food and alcohol brings people!

 

 

Afterwards, I was invited to dinner with the EMEA sales team and our new owners. That was actually a really fun night. It gave us a chance to get to know the owners better and vice versa. But the dinner got off to an awkward start: 6 of us were waiting, at a table, with drinks, at the wrong restaurant. Yep, you heard me. The WRONG restaurant! Not entirely our fault though. You see, there were two doors...the awning with the restaurant's name was between the two doors. We go in the first door and tell the hostess that were here for a party. She said she knew who we were and showed us to our table. We wait. We got a call from our President saying that they were running late. So we wait. We call him again after over 30 mins pass. He said they're seated at our table. No, WE'RE seated at the table. And then we look around....there's olive oil on the table. Why would an Indonesian restaurant have olive oil on the table? Shit. We're at the wrong restaurant! So, we awkwardly tell the waitress that we need to leave, give her some money to cover our drinks (and a little extra for the inconvenience, ie our stupidity) and quietly leave to go next door. We were just slightly embarrassed when we showed up and met our new owners. But, they laughed it off and the rest of the evening was great fun!


Sunday was our most packed day. We had a ton of editor appointments and the booth traffic was pretty steady. This night, was our company dinner night. During each of our big shows, we try and have one night where all of us get together and hang out. It's kind of a team bonding night. After dinner, we went to a pub, but I headed back early and tried to get some much needed sleep. I hadn't been sleeping well and I think by then, my body was starting to shut down. But apparently, the fun started after I went to bed. A couple of my coworkers took a cab with me back to the hotel. They met up with some friends at a bar nearby. Around 3am, they were stumbling back to the hotel. One of the guys saw that my light was on. They started calling my name to get me to come to the window. Only, a guy, one of my other coworkers, came to the window. They were STUNNED. Why was this guy in Amber's room?! OMG! The next morning, they were telling me the story. I started laughing. Apparently, they thought my room was on the corner, just below their room. So when they saw the light on, they thought I was still awake. But it was my other coworkers room. He came to the window because he heard people yelling. He saw who it was and just thought they were drunk and went back to bed. I think the funniest part of the story is the fact that they didn't automatically think, "oh, hey, maybe we have the wrong room......" There was LOTS of teasing them the next day!

Monday was a quiet day. The show was noticeably slower than the other days. I decided that it was probably the best day to walk the show a bit, maybe get some ideas for future booth designs. When I went back to the booth, I discovered that we had won an award for our new product. One of the editors that had an appointment on our booth the day before was the one that gave us the award. Everyone was very excited!! 

Tuesday was the last day of the show. The last day of a show is always the slowest. It's also known as Resume Day - where people that are looking for work, shop the booths to see if anyone's hiring. At this show, I didn't really see much of that, but the traffic was noticeably very slow. Which makes the day seem so much longer. But, by 4pm, the show was closed and we started tear down. My co-worker and I decided that because the show went so well and our feet were so swollen, we deserved a foot massage!! We went for an hour. It was heavenly......and I eventually had my ankles back to normal!!