Notes from an exhibition

Have you ever heard of a small Karoo town called Hanover? No - neither had I until last Saturday. 

 It is almost exactly half way between Johannesburg and Cape Town.  Andrew and I were travelling home from the ElectraMining exhibition and were just looking for a good night's rest.  But what we found beneath the dust and chipped paint of an old village, was a charming guest house with - and this was unexpected- the most beautiful stained glass windows. 

3 Darling Street, Hanover

Hanover is a small place. While we were waiting for our supper at the owner's pub, we left our drinks on the table and took a stroll around the whole village.  It took 15 minutes.  And we did sleep well - loadshedding meant that our government encouraged us to get an early night by turning off the lights at 8pm.

 

Which meant that we could get up early and watch the sun rise from the koppie* .I think this experience might be my highlight of the whole trip.  It involved soft, comforting light, a 360 degrees view of the karoo stretching 60 km into the distant landscape, a sense of peace and a white horse.

 

 

 

It had been a long (good) week.  ElectraMining is a trade show held every 2 years (covid excepting of course) that brings together suppliers and interested parties in all aspects of mining, in the automation, manufacturing and transport fields.  It is held at Nasrec in 5 large halls, with outside space offering excellent viewing of South Africa's Big 5 ( Articulated Dump Trucks, Excavators, Drilling rigs, Bulldozers and Graders) . I enjoyed meeting and speaking to the diverse visitors to the show - boiler makers, MDs, students, management , the curious and the amblers.  We are proud of our work and products, and although I am not a natural sales person, I have my Johannesburg persona, and she worked the floor!

It was exhausting.  Setting up the stand over the weekend after 2 days travel (we overnighted at Bloemfontein on the way up - a land locked city with a Naval Hill....) depleted energy levels.  We had taken up flat pack furniture from Decofurn (think Ikea) for the stand, and the instructions are wordless diagrams that are designed to entertain  (think Frustrate!!) rather than instruct.

By Monday I was feeling feverish and, I am afraid to say, I decorated the streets of Roodepoort with the contents of my stomach.  But we persevered, and ended the week on a high note, giving away in a lucky draw, a radio controlled excavator to one very happy stand visitor.

 

Other important notes and tips from the exhibition:

1. Take your own tea bags.  Coffee drinkers have the pick of the beverages.  You could have caramel coffee, chocolate coffee, frothy coffee, fancy coffee....but no tea. I bought a box of my favourite brand to see me through the exhibition. Towards the end of the week, the lady in hall 9 who dished out the free drinks to the exhibitors, saw me coming towards her, and kindly poured my hot water and milk.  And Andrew's cappuccino.

2. Wear shoes with ankle support.  In the past I have worn flat pumps.  Not a good idea.  This year, I wore closed boot type shoes (No high heels obviously) and my feet survived much better.

3. Proudly fly the flag.  We discovered we were opposite a very large stand offering vaguely similar technology to ours.  It was a foreign company, so we decided to play to our strengths of being a locally designed and manufactured product.  After an internet search we found some South African flags...at a local Chinese market.

4. Strangers are kind generally.  We needed some pages printed 5 minutes before the show opened on the first day. It was a bit of a panic. Printers were in short supply, but the person in the Media office helped with such a kind and gracious attitude.

5. Elevated altitude does not make you look younger. Johannesburg is  1753m above sea level (Cape Town).  We were automatically given the pensioners' discount at the food shop. Sigh.

6. Eye contact makes all the difference.  When talking to people, you can gauge their level of interest or persuade them to stop for a minute by making direct eye contact.  And smiling.

7. Believe in yourself.  One of the best compliments of the week was when someone asked me if marketing was my profession because he could see my passion for being there.

The end of exhibition look!!

 

* a koppie is the South African term for a small hill in a generally flat area.