I Survived glasstec

Well folks, I would have loved to have blogged more before this. I had high hopes of blogging daily from the glasstec show floor, bringing the sights and sounds of glasstec to all of my friends in the States, and pointing to my fellow attendees the most trendy and exciting booths to visit. But you know what? The show is big.

No, I don’t think you understand. To tell you the truth, I don’t think there’s a word yet in existence that conveys the distances I walked over the past five days. BIG barely begins to describe it. Because the size of the halls—the nine halls, did we mention that this show covers nine big halls?—is only part of this equation. Each hall that you walk through is filled with the latest, the most exciting products you’ve seen and so for the first day you just walk around gawking at everything. And maybe for some attendees, those focused few, that’s not a problem because they have their list and they stick to it. But when your objective is to cover everything … I get dizzy just thinking about it.

(Keep in mind the above photo is just a part of just one hall.)

When speaking with another glasstec first-timer, Kearne Prendergast with Grenzebach Corp., I heard my sentiments echoed. When asked his impression of this show compared to those in the U.S., he laughed: “Bigger—and, a lot bigger.” That’s just the only way to describe it.

Knowing this, on day one I made a plan. I decided I’d start off on the furthest hall (thinking that as my feet began to hurt throughout the week I’d move closer to our booth in Hall 13) and start with a familiar face. And that provides me with an example.

As I entered Hall 17 I saw that the Lisec booth essentially was Hall 17. The booth was massive. In some ways I started to feel I’d lucked out: being responsible for covering machinery at the show, I’d hit two or three massive booths and have a hall covered. I wasn’t counting on the fact that each booth would be demonstrating a number of brand new lines—and anyone who has spoken with me at a trade show knows the machinery is my favorite part (it’s so much easier to understand when you can actually see it in action) so I could hardly resist walking every square inch of those massive booths.

But at the beginning of the show I commiserated with Bob Quast, president and chief executive officer of Lisec America Inc., who was another first-time glasstec attendee. When I asked what he thought about the show so far he mentioned that the previous night he and his colleagues had gone out to dinner and “must have had 20 of our customers from the United States come into that one restaurant.”

Yes, that’s another great thing about the BIG show. I ran into so many familiar faces that I hardly felt far from home and the number of North American accents I overheard lulled me into thinking I was ok without any knowledge of German. Which brings up what I hope is not a silly point. Throughout that first day, at least, I found myself drawn into a number of booths because I’d seen words in English over every inch of the booth, only to find that no one in the booth spoke more than a few halting words.

My German is limited to no more than a few words, so I greatly appreciated those individuals who took the time to find a way to translate (in one case, the word translate). But I was surprised at how English seems to be the language of product marketing even for those companies without English-speaking representatives at the show. Nearly every booth had a sign proclaiming in clear English their product’s capabilities, signs that lulled me into thinking I could launch into my rapid-fire spiel and be easily understood. Ha!

But as the days went on I learned to adapt, and to slow down not just my spiel but my whole way of covering the show. I marveled when at Vitrum last fall how many booths had full-blown meals in their booths and while at glasstec I think I finally understood that it’s because each visit is a drawn-out business deal. It’s not just that things move slower overseas; it’s that if you pop in for a booth visit, there’s the real possibility that you’ll be leaving an hour later with a purchase made. With that understood, I began to accept more offers of cappuccino (which I’m sure didn’t help me to slow down my spiel) and prepared to sit and wait at each booth until it was my turn for the focused attention of the booth representative.

So somehow, I made it through my first glasstec. The food was delicious, the people friendly, the fall weather just perfect … the examples of solar glass mind-blowing to someone learning as much as possible about the topic before the launch of a solar section … the machinery demonstrations fascinating … all in all, everything I’d hoped for and more.

Now, one last note; those of you who checked out our video coverage may be amused to hear some of our harebrained plans for a show video wrap-up. My personal favorite ended the report with my colleague Ellen Rogers clicking the heels of her red shoes on the gold carpet that wound through the solar exhibit, chanting “there’s no place like home.” But to tell you the truth, we have so much footage left to share that for us the show is far from over. Stay tuned to USGNN.com for more video from the trade show floor—and keep an eye out for the December USGlass for a peek at products and a full glasstec review.