AeroLink in Cardiff, Wales
On Thursday I got to attend an exhibition with my colleagues Graham and John in Cardiff, Wales. I have never gone to any of our tradeshows or exhibitions so I was pretty excited. Plus the guys are so cool and chill, I knew it wasn't going to be a serious business thing. John came to Sublime on Wednesday at about 3pm to pick me up and we'd drive together to Cardiff and meet Graham there. Quick geography recap for anyone who is a bit rusty- Wales is a country of its own in the United Kingdom. A good portion of the population living there speak your traditional English, but they also have their own language, Welsh. And let me tell you, it is nothing like English. I'll post some pictures I took of a few signs so you can see the difference. All signs in Wales are printed in English and Welsh.
Cardiff is a pretty decent sized city in Wales and is only about 30 minutes away from Bristol. In fact, you can see Bristol from Cardiff and vis versa (there is a small channel that splits the two). We arrive in Cardiff, go to the CIA (Cardiff International Arena) and set up our booth which took like 10 minutes. Then we headed to our hotel where we met Graham, checked in and headed downstairs to the restaurant for a few pints. I had Stella (wife beater) and then we walked over to the marina I guess you would call it. It was like if the Metreon was on the bay. There was a shopping center, theater, and lots of restaurants. We ate dinner at this Italian place then headed two doors down to this dim sum & cocktail place where we all had fruity girly drinks. Then we headed back to the hotel and had another round before hitting the sack at like 1am or later- and we are supposed to be ready to leave the hotel at 7:45am tomorrow? haha. I have no alarm clock, no mobile to act as my alarm clock. Then I see on the phone instructions for setting up a wake-up call. I do that but am not very sure it is going to work. Seemed a bit dodgey. And sure enough come 6:30am I don't get a wake-up call. Luckily my body knew I had to be up, so at 6:45am I jolted myself awake and got out of bed.
Got ready, went downstairs, checked out and we headed off to the show. It was a very small exhibition, but I did not mind since it was my first show. A good ice breaker. The show started a bit slow but then around lunch things seemed to pick up. My first task earlier was to take CD's with our trial version and pass them out to people and collect business cards hopefully. I was nervous because I have never had to do the in-face sales pitch before to anyone that mattered. I started out a bit rusty, but as the day progressed and I met more people I became more confident in my sales abilities. Even pulled in a few good leads.
The event was scheduled to end at 6pm but by 2:30pm it seemed like things had died down and we had spoken to pretty much everyone we had to, so we got to leave early- yay! My feet were killing me and I was tired. Packed up the booth, and on the way out of Cardiff John took my by the bay to show me the locks. It's this interesting system of letting boats in and out of the harbor. See the waters around Cardiff and Bristol are supposedly one of the most dangerous because the tide changes so quickly and at incredible depths. In a matter of minutes the tide can go in and out by 14 meters (about 40 feet). So this harbor has these locks and what is does it keep the water in the harbor seperated from the bay water. If the tide changes, the harbor water doesn't. It is always at the same level.
When ships and boats want to enter the harbor, a door opens and the ship pulls into this closed off space. The door closes behind them and then depending on if the tide was high or low, the space will fill or drain, making the water in this sealed off space equal to that of the harbor (you with me so far...?). Then when the water level inside the space is at the proper height, a door in front opens allowing them to enter the harbor. It's really cool and we were lucky enough that when we arrive a small boat was entering the harbor so I got to see the whole process.
On the ride home a took a nap, then back at the pub I met Vicky, Chris's daughter. Very nice girl. We both agree that Nick is a very messy person. We had a fun time trying to find and plug in a workin light bulb in the bathroom (the previous one went missing). Then Chris came by the pub and brought me my special food delivery. I Requested Ghirardeli chocolates for this girl Caroline who loves it, and then Hersheys bars and Graham crackers. These people have never heard of s'mores. I shall educate them in the making of one of the sweetest, messiest treats. It's funny, when I describe it to people, the girl's reactions are "Oh that sounds good!", while the guy's are "That sounds bad for you." I thought girls were supposed to be all food and figure conscious...? LoL.
Cardiff is a pretty decent sized city in Wales and is only about 30 minutes away from Bristol. In fact, you can see Bristol from Cardiff and vis versa (there is a small channel that splits the two). We arrive in Cardiff, go to the CIA (Cardiff International Arena) and set up our booth which took like 10 minutes. Then we headed to our hotel where we met Graham, checked in and headed downstairs to the restaurant for a few pints. I had Stella (wife beater) and then we walked over to the marina I guess you would call it. It was like if the Metreon was on the bay. There was a shopping center, theater, and lots of restaurants. We ate dinner at this Italian place then headed two doors down to this dim sum & cocktail place where we all had fruity girly drinks. Then we headed back to the hotel and had another round before hitting the sack at like 1am or later- and we are supposed to be ready to leave the hotel at 7:45am tomorrow? haha. I have no alarm clock, no mobile to act as my alarm clock. Then I see on the phone instructions for setting up a wake-up call. I do that but am not very sure it is going to work. Seemed a bit dodgey. And sure enough come 6:30am I don't get a wake-up call. Luckily my body knew I had to be up, so at 6:45am I jolted myself awake and got out of bed.
Got ready, went downstairs, checked out and we headed off to the show. It was a very small exhibition, but I did not mind since it was my first show. A good ice breaker. The show started a bit slow but then around lunch things seemed to pick up. My first task earlier was to take CD's with our trial version and pass them out to people and collect business cards hopefully. I was nervous because I have never had to do the in-face sales pitch before to anyone that mattered. I started out a bit rusty, but as the day progressed and I met more people I became more confident in my sales abilities. Even pulled in a few good leads.
The event was scheduled to end at 6pm but by 2:30pm it seemed like things had died down and we had spoken to pretty much everyone we had to, so we got to leave early- yay! My feet were killing me and I was tired. Packed up the booth, and on the way out of Cardiff John took my by the bay to show me the locks. It's this interesting system of letting boats in and out of the harbor. See the waters around Cardiff and Bristol are supposedly one of the most dangerous because the tide changes so quickly and at incredible depths. In a matter of minutes the tide can go in and out by 14 meters (about 40 feet). So this harbor has these locks and what is does it keep the water in the harbor seperated from the bay water. If the tide changes, the harbor water doesn't. It is always at the same level.
When ships and boats want to enter the harbor, a door opens and the ship pulls into this closed off space. The door closes behind them and then depending on if the tide was high or low, the space will fill or drain, making the water in this sealed off space equal to that of the harbor (you with me so far...?). Then when the water level inside the space is at the proper height, a door in front opens allowing them to enter the harbor. It's really cool and we were lucky enough that when we arrive a small boat was entering the harbor so I got to see the whole process.
On the ride home a took a nap, then back at the pub I met Vicky, Chris's daughter. Very nice girl. We both agree that Nick is a very messy person. We had a fun time trying to find and plug in a workin light bulb in the bathroom (the previous one went missing). Then Chris came by the pub and brought me my special food delivery. I Requested Ghirardeli chocolates for this girl Caroline who loves it, and then Hersheys bars and Graham crackers. These people have never heard of s'mores. I shall educate them in the making of one of the sweetest, messiest treats. It's funny, when I describe it to people, the girl's reactions are "Oh that sounds good!", while the guy's are "That sounds bad for you." I thought girls were supposed to be all food and figure conscious...? LoL.
posted by Triana @ 8:09 AM
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