During an interesting session on unconscious bias, I was informed that within the next 24 hours, I would be on a plane to Stuttgart to meet my industrial sponsor, Ed Jones, at the AMB show, described as the “international meeting point for metal cutting industry”. This didn’t give me a lot of time to brush up on my German skills and this quickly became apparent when attempting to order a Subway from my hotel. After my day of travelling and the sudden realisation that I did not deserve a GCSE in German, it was time to get to my hotel and get ready for the big day ahead of me.
As this was my first expo visit I was in awe at the size of the event; 10 vast halls tailored to different aspects of the metalworking industry, whether it be milling machines, tools, lubricants or control systems, the top competitors around the world were showing off their best products. I quickly found my way over to the Hangsterfer’s booth where I met Ed and Fabian (the German distributor) and was properly introduced to the Hangsterfer’s brand, its history and future plans. Later that evening we reconvened with distributors from Denmark, India and Australia and went for an amazing evening out at a Michelin star restaurant, this was noticeably better than my Subway the previous night.
After powering through the next morning I began to explore each of the individual halls, looking at the new tech demonstrations and the competition in the industry. I carried this on for the remainder of my trip, taking a brief rest to go visit Stuttgart’s highly recommended gardens and zoo. This trip really enabled me to get to know my sponsor company and to talk with the distributors to find out how the product is used across the world, providing more information on research routes that could be explored.
More photos from the trip:
