Brau Beviale – trade fair special

Although the trade fair has not officially opened, the exhibitors are already working diligently. Since we are exhibiting there again we are going to report every day from the Brau Beviale in the next days.

Day 0: The adventure Brau Beviale has started

Welcome to the Brau Beviale 2011 – the exhibitors are already kindly welcomed directly at the entrance. However, the several stands were far from being completed. Work in progress, wherever you look. Even in the foyer the red carpet was just fixed on the floor. And our stand seemed like it could use a few more working hours, as well. Our first team already started their journey to Nuremberg, which is about 470 kilometres away, at 4.00 a.m. When they got to the fair area, they were welcomed by a lot of free space with numerous crates and cartons. Finally, after hours of hard work our stand took shape. The presentation screen is put up, the bar and seats are placed and our machines are shiny. Only a small amount of work had to be done as the day slowly got to its end.

At this point we finally had a bit of time to look at some of the other stands. Tired and hungry we slowly walked along the partly completed and covered stands towards the exit. But whoever thinks that all the booth builders and exhibitors had already finished their work, is mistaken. Some were still diligently working on several stands in order to get everything ready on time for the first visitors at 9 am tomorrow morning. At this point we would like to wish all of you a good night and we will see you tomorrow.

Day 1: The trade fair is open

It is half time on the first day – The interest in our stand and our machines in huge. Thus there has not been time to check what other exhibitors are showing. Before 9 a.m., the official opening time, George Rittmayer was already gazing at his easy to expand keg system he saw for the first time. Around noon his master brewer Uwe Krause joints us to take a closer look at the machine as well. “This feels like Christmas” he said with enthusiasm. The joy of being able to finally put the new machine into operation was enormous.

Apart from numerous suppliers, sales representatives and (new) clients, Friedrich Düll visited us at our stand. Fortunately he did, so the master brewer was able to assist us in getting the SmartDraft taping system running we use to serve his beer with. At the stand nearby the taping system seems to be working quite well, too. Beer is being consumed in vast amounts. It is closing time. It has been an exhausting day. Even though our feet do hurt we are looking forward to the next day. It will be another nine hours of smiling, giving information and socialising. Sadly there has not been any time to take a look at other stands today, as well.
We only had the last half hour of the day to visit some of our suppliers and partners.

The beer consumption at our stand reflected the rather large attendance. We are mostly happy about the increased interest in our products compared to the last year. Now we are hoping that tomorrow will be equally good and that we will have the opportunity to further socialise and get a few enquiries.

Day 2: Stress the entire day long

Right at 9 a.m. our booth was already full. It was not until four and a half hours later that we were able to take a deep breath and sit down. Intermediate result: The interest in our machines was just as strong as yesterday, if not greater. We have been visited from many of our long-standing customers who took a look at our easy to expand keg-system.

However, the most exciting moment is still to come: The speeches organised by Grundfos. And we will also have the chance to give a presentation on the topic of keg systems. In the last three days we practiced it diligently, but it is nevertheless unfamiliar in front of 20 – 30 people. In about one hour our stand will be filled with interested listeners. We are looking forward to it.

Unfortunately the speeches we had planned did not go as we had hoped. The keynote speech was followed by fewer people than originally anticipated. Through a brief period of familiarisation it was possible to adapt to the knowledge of the visitors and to provide important news and other details worth knowing. After this stress we were able to enjoy the stand party from Grundofs. There we met many familiar faces, some contacts were strengthened and new ones were established. However, due to the efforts of the day we only stayed there for a few hours, so that we will be able to work at our stand full of vigour tomorrow.

Day 3: The last hours prior to the journey home

Even though we all went to bed rather early the hard work is shown in everybody’s face. It seems that it had hit an employee from our neighbour stand especially hard. He sat there with his cup of coffee and his head supported by his hands without much movement for the first two hours. In particular interesting for us was watching those visitors who were obviously looking for giveaways. There have been people who were asking nicely and others who were helping themselves brazenly with ten pens. Today we have also been visited by the Messrs Bayer who were looking at their new Combiclean with two cleaning stations. We are already looking forward to supplying it. And even though that the fair will be over soon there is still much to do. As we have to pack our machines properly and our stand has to be dismantled and cleaned.

Maybe we will see each other on the coming fair – Brau Beviale 2012