Colin recounts the ups and downs of his recent experience at Sight Village Birmingham
Sight Village Central July 17th and 18th
St Chads Queensway Birmingham to Dartmouth circus, Aston
Joining the nose to tail traffic on Monday morning heading towards Sight Village Birmingham reminds me of those moments of Deja vu. The google maps is jabbering away yet can’t keep up with the speed of the traffic or the faltering signal. I am getting more and more anxious; sudden braking, swinging suddenly across lanes to take a right turn isn’t helping my anxiety. I absolutely hate being late for anything.
At last, we arrive outside the venue only to find that the prescribed parking is no where to be found. Happy days!
Finally, after failing to register on the just pay app, we abandoned the car and rushed off to find the entrance to Sight Village. I must add that I wasn’t driving, so I can’t blame myself!
Yeah! We’re late, but I think I mentioned that. A kind lady from the show organizers helped us find our pitch and very soon phase 2 of the stand erection was done and dusted and we were ready and prepared to greet visitors. And did those visitors almost overwhelm us? You bet they did. The show had opened its doors at 10:00 and there had been a queue down the street of the keen and eager visitors clambering to find out what was new and to get their grubby paws on the latest gadgets being exhibited across the many businesses and charities displaying at Sight Village Central 2023.
Kate and Marnie were in their element dealing with consecutive enquiries concurrently and without a chance to break the surface and take a breath of air. I did my best in a very noisy auditorium to distinguish when visitors were standing at the table awaiting our attention, but was it noisy? You couldn’t hear the sound of heavy plant equipment redeveloping Birmingham City Centre with the funds that have flooded in after the City hosted the friendly games a few years back, let alone the whispering Bob impersonators enquiring away.
Lunch was upon us very quickly indeed and gave us just a little time to dispatch Marnie off in search of the organizers to check on the time of our presentation and the room location.
Sometime after 13:30 but before 14:00 we rocked up to seminar room 1 to present, prepared only with the prescribed necessities to get going. Alas, no keyboard and we had left the laptop with Kate who was gallantly back in the main auditorium attending to visitors.
The show must go on! So, with the mutual consent of those visitors attending the seminar, it did indeed, the show went on! You can take a sneak peak at what everyone else missed by clicking here
Participation was constructive and apart from the one person hogging the questions. “You always get one” we were most satisfied with its impact.
Back at the show table in the very noisy main exhibitor’s hall we settled in for much the same as before. Those witty and cheeky guys from See Saw Podcast were there recording content for their jolly successful podcast, Eric and Tony soon clicked into interviewer and cameraman pose to record us and get a better understanding of ATW Solutions. Click here for the podcast.
To say that we were like the proverbial cat that got the cream is an understatement, and I don’t like to gloat, but our competitors from Bolton had failed to show up, so they missed out on profiling themselves, oh what a shame.
By: Colin Fowler (July 2023)