The exhibit hall is a shambles, tempers are short, and life is normal for setup day at the IPI. Rumors are flying and most are probably not true, but then, as you know, I’ll pass em along anyway.
I heard from an usually unreliable source that most of the folks running for the board who ran last time (ie those who weren’t elected last year) will be elected this year. And any newbies who are looking to sit on the board will have to wait another year.
There few new faces in the exhibit hall, but some are working in different companies and there are some new companies, at least companies new to me. Amefrican Galvanizers, Advanced printing, Baja Construction, Balco, Cyclops, Digital Acoustics, Engage, Fostoria, Rowe, Savvis, Siplast, Trecan, and others seeking to increase their presence in our industry. As for personnel — a for instance — Joeley Carlson late of Metertek, Mobile Symphony, and Twisted Air, is representing Australia’s DCA – an on street enforcement technology company. Others have changed horses, and I’ll be letting you know as I meet them throughout the show.
Andy and I walked the floor after we set up our booth and got some great video of exhibitors finalizing their set up. Most of the attendees at these shows never see behind the scenes. This was really fun. I even did one interview lying on the floor as one exhibitor (his initials are Jim Meany from Metric) was recovering from a stressful set up.
Most impressive, at least to me, was the paintjob on the new Digital Payment Technology meter. Take a look. Here’s Digital President Andrew Scott with his newly painted P and D machine. He says its a team effort but my sources say Scott came up with the idea. Personally, I like it:
Andrew is a good sport…He was up to his ears in set up and it was hot in the hall. Tampa is moist and warm in May.
Integrapark’s booth looked like this before set up began — Check out our video podcast tomorrow — you’ll see the result of Kyle and Ruth’s work
Got to Run — Andy needs the computer
Later
J
