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Europe 2016: The actual work
posted : Sunday, August 21, 2016
So on to the real reason for the trip which was a trade expo for the traffic industry.
Intertraffic is kind of like a brand, I guess. They hold regular expos in various cities, and in Amsterdam, it was held every two years. A colleague of mine attended it the last time round together with someone from another division, but this year my group only sent one representative. Not sure why though, could be because they received the info late or something. Considering the expo only got bigger in scale each year, I was a bit apprehensive and wondered if one pair of eyes would be enough, since my colleague told me they didn't manage to see everything the last time round.
Expo runs from 10am - 4pm everyday so trudge out early on Tuesday morning to RAI Amsterdam on foot. There are 11 exhibition halls and my plan was to cover the first 6 (which were clustered together) on the first day, the three bigger halls focusing on smart urban mobility on day 2, whatever remaining on day 3 and probably get day 4 off hahahah. While squeezing in a few of the more interesting talks in between.
As it turns out - there weren't too many things that stood out or caught my eye. Many times I walked past a booth and went, meh, we already have these. Or meh, this is not applicable in our context. Panicked a bit because I kind of needed to have something to present when I got back so I actually did a second round lol. Another problem is that sometimes I am not sure what to ask even if things look interesting - most of the times I can't discuss technical details coz I am no expert in the field (when it involves items under the purview of other divisions in my group), and I didn't ask about costing either.
There are booths who are pretty enthusiastic and also those who just brush you aside with a brochure if you tried to ask more questions. There are times when I felt a tinge of racism too - like they tend to entertain angmohs more than Asians, invite you for a cup of coffee (the larger companies usually set up a bar and provide gourmet-looking meals too, guess its important for a deal to be struck). Maybe I don't look as important as a larger group of angmohs in suits.
At the end there are a few things which I thought were worth presenting so took particular notice of those and also left name cards behind. Also ended up going for the expo on day 4, albeit for a couple of hours only, coz I realized there was a talk scheduled on the last day which I was planning to attend. Lugged back more brochures then I intended though and I thought I was pretty screwed by the end of the expo coz I clearly didn't take these into consideration when I packed for the trip lol.
All in all it was a pretty interesting trip I suppose, though not as fruitful as I imagined. First work trip ever, there are advantages and disadvantages of doing it alone but I guess I would prefer a partner next time.
Credentials! Shan't post any photos from the expo, hahaha.
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