Sven took Doug & me to our first trade show yesterday. Automatica is intended for robotics companies & all the major firms are represented. I had several initial impressions, which I will least in bullet form.

• I like eating on West Virginia’s tab. We had coffee in the morning and a nice lunch.
• I did not expect the trade show to be that large. It took up five large halls & included over 800 companies.
• Approaching companies about doing business in WV is harder than I thought. Not only do I have to speak in German, but I have to find a way to subtly broach my intent.
• There were many freebies. I like freebies.
• There were many booth babes. I like booth babes. (As a side note, Sven says that companies rent the women for the trade show.)
• Robots are cool.
• Trade shows are tiring.

I’ll be glad to be on the other side of the booth for the ChemSpec show next week. Most companies I approached had no plans to do business in the US, or already had US subsidiaries or distributors. I was able to schedule a meeting with one large company, but the CEO clearly had no interest in us. It was generally a frustrating experience, with the sense of making very little progress. Most of the companies which seemed most interesting were far too large to have a business interest in West Virginia. Kuka, for instance, took up half of an entire hall & had two separate bars with dedicated waitresses (As another side note, I would love to work for a company that can afford two open bars at its trade show). I was glad to leave around 3:00 to go home.
Today, though, I’m working on summarizing the progress we made during the trade show, which I feel was minimal. I’m drafting several letters in German, which we’ll e-mail out to the company representatives. If we’re lucky, we’ll get some responses back.